88
Friday, May 11, 1984
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Kellogg Eye Cen ter,
In a corneal transplant,
the donor cornea replaces
the diseased one and
serves as a transparent
'window' for the eye,
protecting the pupil and
iris.
e Michigan-Israel
Cornea Connection
cording to assistant director Ton.
Victor. Approximately 65 percent o
those corneas were distributed for
use within the state, Ms. Victor said.
Because the eye bank is sup-
ported in large part by taxpayers, the
needs of Michigan patients are the
primary concern, according to Ms.
Victor, who supervises the collection,
evaluation and distribution of donor
material. Last year, the eye bank
sent about 500 corneas to other
facilities throughout the country and
abroad through programs similar to
the one just implemented in Israel.
While Michigan corneas aren't
being sent to Israel free, "it's being
done for considerably less than cost,"
Dr. Giles said. The Michigan Eye
Bank put the cost for cornea removal
and storage at $320 per cornea with
air transportation- to Israel an addi-
tional $60. Tel Aviv University is
paying $220 for each cornea, includ-
ing transportation costs, Dr. Giles
A new program enables Israelis to undergo eye surgery in hours
instead of waiting weeks.
BY TEDD SCHNEIDER
Staff Writer
Before last month, Israeli sur-
geons, among the world's most gifted,
often found themselves stymied by
the corneal transplant, a relatively
simple procedure. The problem
wasn't a lack of talent or a dearth of
knowledge — just shortage of donor
corneas.
But that stumbling block has
been eliminated through a new pro-
gram initiated by the Israel-
American Ophthalmological Society
and implemented by the Detroit
Jewish Welfare Federation and the
Michigan Eye Bank in which Michi-
gan donors supply the 120 corneas
needed in Israel each year for such
transplants. The first shipment was
sent from Detroit Metropolitan Air-
port last month, while a second
shipment of six corneas arrived in Is-
rael last Friday.
Modern medicine has rendered
the cornea, the transparent layer of
the eyeball which protects the pupil
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and iris, a transplantable commodity
— the same as the heart, liver or
lungs. Corneal transplants have
been done for decades, according to
Dr. Conrad Giles, an ophthal-
mologist and Federation vice
president who is among the overseers
of the new program.
The cornea was one of the first
organs or tissues to undergo a trans-
plant," Dr. Giles said. The procedure
is relatively simple in comparison to,
say a heart transplant, because the
cornea is non-vascular, there are no
blood vessels involved."
Dr. Giles, who is also a clinical
associate professor of ophthalmology
at the Wayne State University
School of Medicine, cited a 90 percent
success rate worldwide for the opera-
tion. Israel, however, presents the
medical establishment with a unique
challenge when it comes to trans-
plants.
Because religious law forbids
If
4 ♦ I 1 4,,c of
'
autopsies, obtaining consent to re-
move the eyes from a corpse is a near
impossibility. This has led to an
acute shortage of donor material for
corneal transplants for many years,"
according to Dr. Giles. Anytime Is-
raeli surgeons did attempt such an
operation it was necessary to beg
and borrow" donor corneas from
other countries, often in a haphaz-
zard fashion, the ophthalmologist
explained. Even when donor mate-
rial became available, the backlog of
patients was so great that many
would wait for long periods before
surgery could be performed.
The Michigan-Israel cornea
connection was born out of a plea
from Dr. Moshe Lazar at Tel Aviv
University to the Israel-American
Ophthalmological Society, of which
Dr. Giles is a member. Although the
original request to set up some kind
of cornea transfer program was sent
to no less than 16 federations, Detroit
was the only city with a positive re-
sponse. Thus, Michigan is now the
sole supplier of corneas to Israel.
The work done by the Michigan
Eye Bank, the second largest facility
of its kind in the United States, was
one of the determining factors in the
decision to go ahead with the pro-
gram. In 1983, the eye bank supplied
1,402 donor corneas for surgery, ac-
Dr. Conrad Giles was a catalyst for the
new program.
said. The university recoups the cost
of the cornea from the patient receiv-
ing it.
The relatively low demand fir
transplantable corneas in Israc
one reason why that country's entire
needs can be supplied by one source.
Replacement corneas go to IDF
soldiers suffering from combat-
related eye injuries and civilians
with degenerative eye diseases. Dif-
ferences in American and Israeli
surgical techniques are one reason
fewer corneal transplants are done in
the Jewish state, according to Dr.
Giles.
"A popular U.S. treatment for
cataracts involves the inter-ocular
implant which is one of the major
causes of corneal failure," Dr. Giles
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