Chennai: At a time when nearly 12.7 million people worldwide are waiting for corneal transplants — with just one donor cornea available for every 70 in need — a city-based hospital has opened a dedicated centre for a surgery that restores vision without corneal transplantation in select patients.On Wednesday, chief minister C Joseph Vijay opened the centre at Dr Agarwals Eye Hospital, Alwarpet. The procedure, pinhole pupilloplasty, was developed by hospital chairperson and managing director Dr Amar Agarwal and colleagues. The procedure helps patients with corneal scars, irregular corneas or aberrations left after earlier surgeries — conditions that blur or distort vision but do not always require a full transplant.For the procedure, surgeons use a suture technique to narrow the pupil to about 1mm – 1.5mm, down from around 5mm. The smaller opening blocks light scattered by the irregular parts of the cornea and lets the straighter, more focused rays reach the retina, similar to how a pinhole camera works. In a study of 25 eyes with corneal scars, published in 2026, the surgery produced statistically significant gains in uncorrected and corrected vision, with no change detected in corneal shape afterwards.The approach addresses a supply problem in eye care, Dr Agarwal said. A 2016 global survey estimated that 12.7 million people worldwide were waiting for corneal transplants, of which India accounted for about 7 million. “Because pupilloplasty modifies the eye’s existing tissue rather than replacing it, it does not draw on the donor cornea supply,” he said.Hospital officials said more than 5,000 patients have undergone the procedure so far, and the new centre will train ophthalmologists in patient selection and technique.
