Eye banking: 1944 to the present.

Through the efforts of Dr. Townley Paton, eye banks were founded in New York in the early 1940s. Since that time there has been steady growth in both the supply of and demand for donor material. A number of factors have contributed to the success of eye banks in the U.S.A., including improvements in eye banking techniques and administration, increase in corneal surgery, legislation facilitating corneal donations, and growing confidence of patients and ophthalmologists in the success of corneal tissue transplantation.