AIIMS Eye Bank Partners with Indira Gandhi Hospital in Dwarka, Two Others
The National Eye Bank at AIIMS has expanded its cornea-retrieval network by partnering with three hospitals in New Delhi, including Indira Gandhi Hospital in Dwarka. The eye bank signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) to strengthen donor tissue procurement, research, and training under the AIIMS-Delhi Hospital Corneal Retrieval Programme (HCRP) this year.
Along with Indira Gandhi Hospital in Dwarka, the network has added the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences and Dr RML Hospital, as well as the Northern Railway Central Hospital. The institutional partnerships aim to increase the availability of donor tissue for transplantation across the region.
The development comes as the National Eye Bank continues to manage a high volume of procedures. In 2025, the facility collected 2,167 corneas and carried out transplants on 1,775 corneal-blind patients. The centre has now completed more than 1,300 corneal transplants annually for four consecutive years.
The HCRP plays a central role in these operations. Of the 2,167 corneas collected in 2025, 1,775 corneas, or 81.9 percent, were retrieved through the programme. The hospital-based model enables eye-bank counsellors and technicians to identify potential donors, provide counselling to bereaved families, and retrieve corneas directly at participating hospitals.
Over the past 61 years, the National Eye Bank has collected more than 38,000 corneas and visually rehabilitated over 28,000 people through transplantation surgeries. In addition to clinical procedures, the centre has trained more than 500 ophthalmologists in advanced corneal transplantation techniques.
In 2025, the centre performed 631 optical keratoplasties. It has also transitioned to sutureless Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK), a specialized surgical technique where only the functional endothelial membrane is transplanted in suitable patients presenting with endothelial dysfunction, potentially enabling faster visual rehabilitation.
