According to Science and Technology Daily, there are more than 2 million people in China waiting for corneal transplants, but because of the scarcity of corneas, only 2,000 to 2,500 complete corneal transplants are successfully performed each year throughout the nation.

Recently, ophthalmologists at Beijing Tongren Hospital (BTH) conducted a survey, using the data of 3,016 people in the last ten years who registered at the hospital's eye bank to be ready to donate their corneas. The results of the survey show that of all donors, there are more young than old, more women than men and more well-educated than less-educated.

Doctor Pan Zhiqiang, director of BTH's eye bank, conducted this survey. He said that following the development and spread of corneal transplants, more and more hospitals face the problem of scarcity of corneas.

Although BTH's eye bank has developed its propaganda and registration work on cornea donation since 1990 and at present about 40,000 people have registered to donate their corneas after death, the actual annual corneas donated fall far short of what is actually needed. For example, about 1,000 people register each year at BTH for a corneal transplant, but only about 100 actually get a transplant. The rest need help from eye banks in foreign countries or material for corneal adjustment to handle emergency cases such as corneal perforation.

(Chinanews June 23, 2005)