“We already see more than 32,000 patients here each year, and we anticipate that number growing,” said Joern Soltau, chair of the UofL Health – Eye Institute and the University of Louisville Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. “The best part about having such a variety of expertise with our physicians is that no matter your vision issue, we have an expert to help and it’s all here under one roof.”

The newly formed institute is located within the Kentucky Lions Eye Center building and expands on the 50-plus-year legacy started by the Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation to improve eye care access and make vision services affordable to all.

“UofL Health and the Kentucky Lions Eye Foundation share a passion for serving our community and breaking down barriers to care,” said Tom Miller, chief executive officer of UofL Health. “This eye institute is another example of our commitment to increase access and grow points of care. We’ve done that for emergency care, cancer care, heart care and many more. Today we dedicate this institute because healthy vision is such an important part of healthy living.”

The Eye Institute is home to nationally renowned eye care specialists who are dedicated to serving their patients, from routine eye care, glasses and contact lenses with the assistance of Korrect Optical, to treatment for complicated eye diseases or conditions.

Some of the key services and treatment options provided include:

• Cornea and external disease
• Refractive surgery (laser vision correction)
• Contact lenses
• Advanced cataract surgery
• Glaucoma
• Retina and vitreous
• Electrophysiology
• Uveitis
• Oculofacial and plastic surgery
• Neuro-ophthalmology
• Optical shop
• Ocular prosthetics

Located within UofL Heath’s downtown academic medical campus, the Eye Institute serves as the hub for today’s vision care and the treatments of future. In partnership with the UofL School of Medicine Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, nearly 300 residents and fellows train here to care for patients across the state.

“We are advancing a facility that has been and will continue to be on the forefront of ocular health for decades to come,” said Toni Ganzel, dean of the UofL School of Medicine. “I view milestones such as this through the lens of how we extend the education and training of our students, residents and fellows. And by extension, how these efforts contribute to the care of our patients through clinical care and research.”

The UofL Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences currently has basic science research grants totaling $3.14 million from sources that include:

• National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• S. Department of Defense (DOD)
• Research to Prevent Blindness Foundation
• Foundation Fighting Blindness
• Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence
• Robert W. Rounsavall, Jr. Family Foundation

“This merger is the culmination of 25 years of negotiation and work behind the scenes to better serve the people of Kentucky,” said Tom Van Etten, of Louisville, past Lions Eye Foundation chair.

Previously, the Louisville Lions Eye Bank, affiliated with the UofL, served the western part of the state; the Eye Bank of Lexington, affiliated with the University of Kentucky, served the eastern part of Kentucky and parts of West Virginia. The new Kentucky Lions Eye Bank serves the same geographical area as Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates to effectively coordinate corneal donation with organ and tissue donation statewide. 

Corneal transplantation is a separate procedure that replaces all or part of a diseased cornea, improving sight, stabilizing diseased eyes and improving comfort in patients with severe corneal pathology. In 2015, there were 79,000 corneal transplants performed in the United States, and there were 470 donors of ocular tissue from Kentucky. Cornea transplants have a 95 percent success rate, and the lifetime economic benefit of corneal transplants performed in 2013 in the United States was $5.5 billion. The leading indication for corneal transplantation in 2016 was keratoconus, followed by corneal edema, Fuchs dystrophy and corneal scars.

The newly merged Kentucky Lions Eye Bank positions the state of Kentucky to efficiently coordinate with other eye banks in the U.S. to provide corneas for transplant in the state of Kentucky and assist with medical needs elsewhere when possible.

For the immediate future, the laboratories at UofL and UK will remain functional as operations will continue in both cities. They gradually will be centralized in Louisville throughout the next five years.

“The merged Eye Bank will be an asset to the state of Kentucky and should provide the resources for the state to be a national provider of donor ocular tissue to restore sight and to assist in research of blinding diseases,” said Henry J. Kaplan, MD, chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Louisville.

More information is available on the organization’s .