Established in 1986, L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Prevention of Blindness, is a comprehensive eye health facility. The institute has ten active arms to its areas of operations: Clinical Services, Education, Research, Vision Rehabilitation, Rural and Community Eye Health, Eye Banking, Advocacy and Policy Planning, Capacity Building, Innovation and Product Development. LVPEI is managed by two not-for-profit entities – Hyderabad Eye Institute (HEI) and Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation (HERF).
The beginning, before the brick and mortar of the institute, the renowned Indian film-maker Sri Akkineni Lakshmi Vara Prasad Rao, popularly known as L V Prasad, decided to invest a part of the profits of his blockbuster film Ek Duuje Ke Liye for a worthy cause. He donated rupees one crore and five acres of land for establishing the state-of-the-art Eye Institute. In recognition of this gesture, the board of the institute decided to name the institute after him.
LVPEI has served nearly 34.14 million (3.4 crore) people, with over 50% of them entirely free of cost, irrespective of the complexity of care needed, done over 1.93 million surgeries, trained over 55,000 ophthalmologists and optometrists.[15] The institute offers rehabilitation services for persons with visually impairment,[16] and in 2018 it inaugurated a 'Special Needs Vision Clinic' to provide eye care to children with developmental delays and disabilities.[17]
Main center in Banjara Hills, named after Kallam Anji Reddy the founder of Dr.Reddy Labs.
3 tertiary centers in Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar and Vijayawada.
26 secondary centers
245 primary care centers
The secondary and primary care centers provide medical facilities to the remotest rural areas of the country.
Eye bank
As of 2020, LVPEI Eye Bank Network has been performing over 2,000 corneal transplant surgeries every year.[27] As of February 2023, total corneas collected were 1,19,279 and over 69,964 corneal transplant surgeries have been performed at the institute, which may be the highest at a single institute anywhere in the world.[27][28]
The RIEB set up the Hyderabad Cornea Preservation Medium Centre which uses a McKarey Kauffman (MK) Medium.[29]