Indian Health Care Thread

[karkal]

Novel technique using stem cells revives damaged eye

SIMPLE YET EFFECTIVE: The damaged eye (left) has total deficiency of limbal stem cells prior to operation. But the same eye has become functional after the Simple Limbal Epithelial Transplantation (SLET) procedure was done at the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad. Photo: Special Arrangement

Treating blindness caused by burns using limbal stem cells harvested from the undamaged eye of the same patient has now become cheaper, easier and safer. Results of a pilot study of the SLET (simplified technique of limbal transplantation) technique conducted at L.V. Prasad Eye Institute on six patients, and published recently in the British Journal of Ophthalmology provides the proof.