Cornea Bank Budapest

Cornea transplantation is the most effective way – in some cases the only remedy – for certain eye-diseases appearing in the young or in the old age. This operation is the solution at various inherited or infectious diseases and in case of injuries as well.

Cornea transplantations have been made since the 1950s in Hungary. These corneas were taken fresh from donors and since the arrivals of these corneas were quite unpredictable, patients had to wait for days or even weeks at the hospital’s ophthalmology for their turns. Getting the satisfactory quality and quantity cornea became a greater problem with the increase of the number of patients waiting for the operation. With that method screening of the donors’ hepatitis, HIV and syphilis had not been solved either, which is a basic requirement at any kind of transplantation today. Providing the necessary good quality cornea for the patients culminated in what had been established in many countries by then: cornea banks.

Hungary’s first individual cornea tissue bank for transplantations started its operation in July 1993 with the name of CORNEA BANK BUDAPEST. The measure of demand is clearly shown in the numbers: in the very first year it supplied cornea for one hundred operations, while in the following year this figure exceeded five hundred. Cornea transplantations are sponsored by the state in Hungary and Cornea Bank Budapest provided ophthalmology departments of hospitals and eye-clinics in the capital and in larger cities of Hungary as well.
In the 30 years of its operation, Cornea Bank Budapest laboratory prepared and evaluated more than 15,000 corneas out of which 11,000 have been grafted.

Certain legislative changes put the laboratory in a difficult situation years ago, because of which the number of distributed corneas dropped to a third. Unfortunately, since neither the legislation nor the financing conditions have changed over the years, the cornea bank was forced to cease operation after 30 years.

Because of the worldwide known middle- and long-term storage systems the operations can be scheduled and allows the tissues to be checked even several times beforehand. The evaluation of the cornea as well as other examinations are carried out under international requirements in our laboratory, so only adequate quality tissues are transplanted from our bank. The donors undergo Hepatitis B and C, HIV and syphilis (Treponema pallidum) screening and corneas only with negative laboratory result and with a microscopic evaluation are sent for transplantation.

The Cornea Bank Budapest had been a member of the European Eye Bank Association since its establishment. Thanks to international connections several members of our laboratory have visited cornea banks in other countries.