Foreign Project: Operation Restore Sight

Operation Restore Sight Summary

Operation Restore Sight is a clinic and surgery center that will perform cornea transplants and provide post-operative care to patients in the Republic of Uzbekistan. Located in the city of Tashkent, Operation Restore Sight is a collaborative effort between the Mid-Continent Eye Bank and Amati, Ltd. to equip an existing building as a clinic/surgery center, train physicians to perform transplant procedures, provide post-operative care and to provide a supply of corneas to the clinic for transplantation. Mid-Continent Eye Bank and Amati, Ltd. have created a collaborative effort that has secured support from other organizations including the Eye Foundation. The Eye Foundation has committed $50,000 for the necessary travel expenses for surgeons to receive training in the United States.

Uzbekistan Profile

Uzbekistan is located in Central Asia and was part of the former Soviet Union until 1991. Uzbekistan gained independence in 1991 and is part of the Commonwealth of Independent States, independent countries that comprised the former Soviet Union. Located in Central Asia, Uzbekistan borders Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. Uzbekistan has approximately 279,625 sq mi and is larger than Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain and Switzerland combined. Uzbekistan has a population of 24,755,720 with ethnic demographics of 75.8% Uzbek, 6% Russian, 4.8% Tajiks, 4.1% Kazakhs and 1.6% Tatars. The capital city of Tashkent has a population of two million. Uzbekistan is a republic whose government is parliamentary and lead by a President who is elected by popular vote every five years. The Uzbekistan government is developing an open economy based on its participation in a global marketplace and economy. Uzbekistan has established economic relations with western countries including Germany, the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Turkey and China.

Need for Operation Restore Sight

Uzbekistan has a disproportionate number of patients with blinding eye diseases, 35% of which is attributed to corneal blindness. There are two major risk factors involved in the high incidence of eye disease and resulting in corneal blindness; a lack of accessible, adequate health care and the associated poverty of the general population. The average per capita income in Uzbekistan is $300 (Office of the Minister of Economic Development, 2000) Operation Restore Sight will offer services to any Uzbekistan citizen in need, with priority given to those with the most severe mitigating financial circumstances. With proper treatment corneal blindness has a 97% cure rate and approximately 87,000 Uzbekistans could have their functional sight restored with corneal transplant surgery. The population has a high rate of diseases such as Trachoma, Corneal Dystrophies, Pseudophakic and Aphakic Bullous Keratopathy, yet each of these diseases have a high cure rate with the use of transplant surgery. Patients needing sight restoring corneal transplant surgery currently have no access to tissue, clinical facilities and physician services to provide transplant surgeries.

Uzbekistan has several major problems that hinder the medical community in addressing the problem of eye disease within its population.

These problems are:

Operation Restore Sight Mission

The mission of Operation Restore Sight is to relieve the need for corneal transplant tissue, training and facilities in Uzbekistan by establishing a clinic and surgery facility in Tashkent that will utilize imported tissue for transplant surgeries. This facility will be equipped, supplied and operated through a collaborative effort by the Mid-Continent Eye Bank and Amati, Ltd. By combining the resources and contacts of both organizations a clinic and surgery center will be established in the city of Tashkent to perform cornea transplants and provide post-operative care to patients. Operation Restore Sight can be used as a model for similar facilities throughout Uzbekistan.

The Mid-Continent Eye Bank will assist the Uzbekistan facility by providing expertise to establish and maintain a quality eye bank/transplant facility in Tashkent. The Mid-Continent Eye Bank has access to an abundance of transplantable tissue with an estimated 23,000 surplus corneas available annually for export from the United States. In addition, The Mid-Continent Eye Bank has access to surgeons who have made a commitment to donate their time and expertise to train surgeons from Uzbekistan in transplant techniques and post-operative care. The current state of the transplant culture in Uzbekistan is comparable to that in the United States sixty years ago. The Mid-Continent Eye Bank will help Uzbekistan utilize the experience of the United States by guiding and supporting the establishment of a tissue donor network with state-of-the art surgery and after care procedures.

The collaboration between the Mid-Continent Eye Bank and Amati, Ltd. will allow Operation Restore Sight to utilize imported transplantable tissue for patients in Uzbekistan who will suffer total loss of sight without transplant surgery. Each year the United States recovers more corneal tissue than it can use, tissue that can be used to make a significant positive impact on the rate of blindness in Uzbekistan. Through the national network of eye banks in the United States, theMid-Continent Eye Bank has access to the surplus of corneas available for transplant. These corneas are of the same quality as tissue used in the United States but due to scheduling of surgeries and the short shelf life of 14 days for preserved corneas, an excess of high quality tissue available for export is created. Operation Restore Sight will provide a successful model for similar facilities and service provision that can be replicated in other cities throughout Uzbekistan and Central Asia. By encouraging the establishment of additional transplant surgery facilities, TheMid-Continent Eye Bank and Amati, Ltd. will be building a successful eye bank network for the people of Central Asia. The ultimate goal of Operation Restore Sight is to make a positive impact towards eliminating curable blindness around the world.

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