Chandigarh: ‘In PGI, 2,000 patients waiting for corneal transplantation, only 500 corneas come every year’
In 2024, the PGIMER registered 444 eye donations and performed 348 corneal transplants, with a 78 per cent utilisation rate
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The event is observed from August 25 to September 8 and celebrated every year at the PGIMER (Express Photo)“Currently, more than 1.3 million people are corneal blind in India and the current annual transplant number in the country varies from 25,000 to 30,000,” Chandigarh professor Surinder S Pandav, head, Department of Ophthalmology, said as the PGIMER marked 40th National Eye Donation Fortnight.
The event is observed from August 25 to September 8 and celebrated every year at the PGIMER. Pandav also said that the fortnight is organised to disseminate awareness to the public and to bridge the gap between the demand and supply of cornea.
“In the PGIMER, around 2,000 patients are waiting for their corneal transplantation, but the hospital gets only about 500 corneas every year,” shared Pandav, with appreciation certificates given to three donor families, who had donated their family members’ eyes to the PGIMER bank.
In 2024, the PGIMER registered 444 eye donations and performed 348 corneal transplants, with a 78 per cent utilisation rate, and 60 to 70 per cent of donations came through the Hospital Cornea Retrieval Programme (HCRP).
Between January and July 2025, the institute carried out 280 eye donations and 195 corneal transplants, with 260 donations and 190 transplants in 2024 in the same time frame.
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