A large new facility to irradiate and store a variety of human tissues for
medical use on this island and around the region was inaugurated late last
year by Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Madam Sirimavo Bandaranaike in Sri Lanka's
capital. The 10,000 curie gamma irradiator provided by IAEA-TC is now
operational, and the tissue bank is already distributing sterile human tissue
to government hospitals across the country. Indeed, a catalogue is now
available listing various bones, eye parts, tendons and other tissue.


Tissue banking isn't new to Sri Lanka, however. Nearly 20 years ago,
Dr. Hudson Silva launched a campaign to preserve eyes donated by his patients
so that others might see again. The tax-free charity that he set up, the
SriLanka Eye Donation Society (widely known as the Eye Bank), has helped more
than 10,000 Sri Lankans to regain their vision. Over the last 30 years, the
bank has sent more than 30,000 sight-restoring corneas to eve surgeons in 60
countries. These have been delivered free of charge, but recipient
institutions have made cash donations enabling the bank to thrive. Today,
the Society has 325 branches around the country with the active involvement
of 15,000 volunteers.

Given such a track record, and the fact that tissue banking is now a
demonstrably viable technology, TC was fully confident about helping Sri
Lanka set up the new facility which is sited on land in a prime residential
area provided by the Health Ministry. The Agency will contribute some
US$375,000 over four years (1995-98). Apart from the governmental inputs,
the Eye Bank and local charities will donate nearly US$150,000.


Oblation of one's body is inherent in Sri Lanka's religious-cultural
traditions, so the Eve Bank has never been short of cornea donations.
An average of 15 to 20 people per day are filling out the form for eye
donation. About 15 percent of them are also willing to donate tissue.
By autumn of 1996, some 90,000 registered donors had expressed their
willingness to donate tissues.

Processing of "amnion" - the inner membrane of the placenta that cocoons
the fetus - began in 1995. This thin, opaque material is immensely rich
in hormones, but is usually thrown away after a baby is delivered.
Pharmaceutical companies procure it from maternity hospitals to extract
hormones, and it is also widely used to treat wounds and secondary burns.
But the full range of its medical applications is still being explored.


The Colombo tissue bank has begun providing amnion to public and private
hospitals. Its capacity to prepare, double package and irradiate amnion is
about 350 pieces a month, while current local needs are estimated at 200
pieces. The rest is being sent abroad to meet urgent needs elsewhere. In
time, the Bank will similarly process and store skin and bone tissues as well
as brain and spinal cord membranes, intra-muscular tissue, heart valves,
arterial and cardiovascular graft material.