2020–2021 BCSC Basic and Clinical Science Course™
8 External Disease and Cornea
Chapter 15: Clinical Approach to Corneal Transplantation
Keratoplasty and Eye Banking
Milestones in the History of Keratoplasty and Eye Banks
The first human corneal transplant, for a 45-year-old laborer with an opaque cornea due to a lime burn, was performed by Eduard Zirm in 1906. In 1919, Anton Elschnig performed a partial central corneal penetrating transplant. Vladimir Filatov, his student, was the first to use donor corneas from cadavers. In the 1930s, Ramon Castroviejo developed instruments specially designed for performing corneal transplantation. In 1944, R. Townley Paton established the first eye bank to provide a source of donated human eye tissue for keratoplasty.
In 1961, to establish uniform policies and procedures for corneal transplantation, 10 eye banks formed the Eye Bank Association of America (EBAA). The 2018 EBAA membership currently includes all 85 eye banks in the United States, as well as 14 international eye banks.
Excerpted from BCSC 2020-2021 series: Section 10 - Glaucoma. For more information and to purchase the entire series, please visit https://www.aao.org/bcsc.