Sadiqullah Khan, Surriaya Zaman, Muhammad Zubair Masud, Muhammad Ishaq, Nasir Saeed.
To Investigate the Knowledge, Awareness & Willingness for Corneal Donations in KPK.
Ophthalmol Update Jan ;16(1):511-4.

Background. Blindness due to corneal opacity (11.8%) is second to cataract surgery(51.5%) in Pakistan. Corneal transplant surgery, is the only solution to reduce avoidable blindness due corneal disorders. In 1961, the Pakistan Eye Bank society started the campaign for donation of corneas in Karachi, but the response was very poor to the ratio of 1:70 Material and Methods: A total of 100 people from 50 patients who received corneal graft i.e., two members of each patient, were recruited for this cross sectional study. The study assessed willingness or refusal to corneal donation. Result: Amongst the participants 93% agreed for donation and 7% did not agree to donate the cornea due to their own belief. Conclusion: There is a dire need to establish corneal banks in every teaching hospitals for the purpose of receiving donations of cornea and helping for surgery. Involvement of community volunteers, doctors, NGOs is important to create awareness regarding the corneal donation movement in the country. It will not only be a great help to restore the vision of the corneal blinds, in order to bring them into the main stream of normal and healthy people.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com