Hospital starts iris transplantation service in Chitwan

Chitwan, October 11

Bharatpur Eye Hospital of Chitwan has been the first hospital in the district to launch iris transplant service. With the service available at the hospital, patients in the district now do not require to travel to the Capital for iris transplant.

The hospital management committee’s chairperson Chij Kumar Maske said the hospital would start collecting irises from tomorrow on the occasion of World Sight Day. He added that the collected irises would be stored at Kathmandu-based Tilganga Eye Hospital.

“As we don’t have a facility to store irises as of now, we’ll store them at Tilganga Eye Hospital and fetch them from there whenever required,” he said, adding the hospital had so far carried out four iris transplants. A patient requiring to have an iris transplant has to pay Rs 11,000 at the hospital.

The hospital has a doctor and a technician to carry out iris transplants.

According Nepal Netrajyoti Sangh, Chitwan acting Chairperson Krishnaraj Dharel, the eye hospital has signed contracts with Bharatpur Hospital, Chitwan Medical College and College of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital for collection of irises. The hospital is also imparting training to concerned staff of the hospital who would harvest irises from dead bodies.

“The hospital has also called prospective donors to donate irises. Anyone interested to donate iris will get an identity card. Later the donor’s family will have to inform the hospital when the donor dies, whereupon hospital staff  would extract iris from the deceased’s body,” said Marke.

According to him, arrangements will be made for iris collection even at Devghat Dham, the cremation site in Chitwan.

As per data, the hospital and its service centres had tested eyes of as many as 10,7539 patients in the current fiscal. Of them, 6,719 persons went through eye operation.

The data also shows that two to three persons visiting the hospital and its service centres are in need of iris transplantation. As per World Health Organisation data, some 285 million people in the world have visual impairment.