Bill Harvey: The gift of a donor cornea

The ability to graft a donor cornea into the eye of a patient previously suffering a corneal degradation of some manner has been a major step forward in reducing blindness.

The avascular nature of corneas makes them eminently suited to transplantation, as the risk of host rejection is greatly reduced. As a young keen refractionist many years ago, I occasionally was asked to do some of the post-operative refractions for Colin Kirkness’ cornea clinic (anyone remember him?).

At that time, it was not unheard of to find corneal cylinder in the double figures after penetrating keratoplasty, and the stenopeic slit was often the best way to confirm refraction. No matter how significant the post-operative refractive error, all patients were overjoyed at being able to see again and I remember thinking that this would persuade even the most ardent anti-transplant sceptic to reconsider the merits of organ donation.