The promise of international eye banking

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization, world blindness has been put between 28 to 42 million. Of this number, well over 10 million are corneally blind. Tissue Banks International, TBI, through its international division known as the International Federation of Eye Banks, IFEB, is assisting in establishing regional eye banks on a global basis. The experiences of TBI in the United States have provided a model system of eye banking and, as an outgrowth of this system, an international network may be established. It is hoped that this international network of eye banks will generate eye tissue which can be shared with those parts of the world where no eye banking system currently exists.