Srinagar 20 Feb, 2025: Department of Ophthalmology, SKIMS Medical College achieves a major milestone by getting THOTA (The Human Organ Transplant Act) License for undertaking corneal Transplant Surgeries in blind patients. The blind patients impacted by various corneal diseases will be highly benefited and will be rendered seamless services.
Head of the Department of Ophthalmology SKIMS Medical College in his remarks said that they express their gratitude to the Director, SKIMS/ Principal SKIMS Medical College Bemina Prof. (Dr) Mohd Ashraf Ganie, for his tireless efforts and to facilitate the process. This will undoubtedly go a long way in mitigating the sufferings of poor blind patients. The corneal surgeries have a high successful rate and this is a big achievement for the department where such patients will now be treated successfully, he added.
The Department will start the Corneal Transplantation Surgeries soon under the supervision of experts including HOD Ophthalmology Prof (Dr) Sheikh Sajjad Ahmad along with the supportive Faculty members Prof (Dr) Imtiyaz Ahmad, Dr Nusrat Shaheen and Dr Wasim Rashid .
It is pertinent to mention here that, It is mandatory for any hospital/ Department dealing with human organ transplant to have a License to conduct these procedures. The License is granted based on availability of trained faculty and high end infrastructure.
Besides offering Post-Graduate courses since 2013 , it is one of the major clinical departments offering tertiary care in sub-specialties of Cataract , Glaucoma ,Oculoplasty , Strabismus and Vitreo-retina . The department also runs state of the art research lab which is well equipped with various diagnostic and therapeutic modalities like OCT , FFA , VFA , A-Scan ocular untrasonography , B-Scan ocular ultrasonography , Optical Biometery , Green Laser , Diode Laser and Corneal Topography . The department also started Collagen Cross linking since 2024 for patients suffering from Keratoconus after installing a high end C3R laser machine for the first time in any Government institution of the UT.
