The Hindu : Front Page : A blessing for those who cannot benefit from conventional corneal transplants

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Monday, Dec 18, 2006
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A blessing for those who cannot benefit from conventional corneal transplants

Staff Reporter

Professor Falcinelli Modified Osteo-Odonto Keratoprosthesis Centre opened

— Photo: M. Vedhan

S.S. Badrinath, chairman, Sankara Nethralaya, greeting Prof. Giancarlo Falcinelli at the inauguration of the Prof. G. Falcinelli MOOKP Centre in Chennai on Sunday.

CHENNAI: When Sankara Nethralaya opened the Professor G. Falcinelli Modified Osteo-Odonto Keratoprosthesis (MOOKP) Centre on Sunday, it was scripting the latest chapter in a story that began with the vow of 10-year-old Giancarlo Falcinelli in Italy over 70 years ago.

At the inaugural function, Sankara Nethralaya's Dr. Padmanabhan related how Prof. Falcinelli promised his childhood friend, blinded in a freak accident, that he would make him see. The fulfilment of that promise is the MOOKP operation, originally conceived by his teacher Benedetto Strampelli in the 1960s.

An emotional Prof. Falcinelli attributed his success and the new centre to "the sightless people for whom I am working ... my great master Strampelli and my homeland."

Successfully modified

Prof. Falcinelli has successfully modified the Strampelli operation, and demonstrated it around the world. "He is an 83-year old, but seems to have the energy of a 38-year-old," said S.S. Badrinath, chairman of Sankara Nethralaya. The operation is meant for those who cannot benefit from conventional corneal transplants because of severe eye damage and dryness. It uses a patient's own tooth to support an optic cylinder placed over the eye to provide the clear window required for vision.

G. Sitalakshmi, director of the CJ Shah Cornea Services at Sankara Nethralaya, learnt the technique from Prof. Falcinelli over a series of visits after he performed it for the first time in India in 2003. "I did not know the road to success would be long and bumpy ... The professor has literally held my hand and taught me to do this surgery," said Dr. Sitalakshmi. She is the first woman to master the difficult operation that is performed in two or three phases of up to eight hours each. Fifteen patients have now been operated on by the Sankara Nethralaya team in Chennai, with several more in between phases. One early patient was Rajendran, principal of the Kendriya Vidyalaya on the IIT Madras campus, who shared how the operation helped him "regain confidence in life."

Geetha Iyer, a member of the ocular surface team, pointed out that this procedure using an artificial cornea was critical for India, since the high cost of long-term immuno-depressants made the alternative procedure of stem-cell transplant unviable. The British price tag of £8,000 to £10,000 has been brought down to just over Rs 1.5 lakh in Chennai, partly due to an indigenously developed cylinder.

Refuses to patent

Prof. Falcinelli has refused to patent his technique, since he "wants it to be available to bring sight to everyone around the world." Praising the efficiency and skill of Sankara Nethralaya's doctors, he has offered to continue collaborating with the centre for future research.

As N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, said, the centre is "a wonderful coming together of different stories." He praised Sankara Nethralaya for reconciling "the pursuit of excellence and uncompromising standards ... with the need to be accessible in a society where at least 350 million people lack basic means of subsistence."

President Abdul Kalam's felicitations to the centre were read out at the function, while Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi sent his greetings through the president of the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce, Sauro Mezzetti. Through educational and technical collaborations between the two countries, "we hope to have many more Professor Falcinellis coming to India," said Dr. Mezzetti.

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