The launch of the SIBO campaign on corneal donation and Italy’s 12 Eye Banks, which restore sight to 8,500 patients every year.
NATIONAL “YES” DAY – September 27–28, 2025
Over the past year, nearly 8,500 Italian patients have regained their sight thanks to a corneal transplant. This number has been steadily growing since 2020, driven by 11,105 corneal donations and a nationwide network of twelve facilities. Distributed throughout Italy, this network collects donated ocular tissues, ensures their quality and safety, and distributes them to hundreds of transplant centers. These are the twelve Italian Eye Banks, united under the Italian Society of Eye Banks (SIBO), which launched its new campaign on the occasion of the National “Yes” Day (Giornata Nazionale del Sì) on September 27–28, promoted by AIDO: “So that every ‘yes’ can restore sight.”
This public awareness campaign was created by SIBO with the support of AIMO (Italian Association of Ophthalmologists) and A.I.CHE. (Italian Keratoconus Association), and with the non-financial patronage of the National Transplant Center (CNT). It aims to inform the public about a widespread national network of professionals capable of restoring sight through transplantation, and to raise awareness among all Italian citizens regarding the essential act of corneal donation. It is a gift that still represents the only therapeutic solution for many ocular diseases.
“Eye banks are facilities staffed by trained professionals, including highly specialized physicians, biologists, and technicians. They receive the gift of ocular tissues provided by more than eleven thousand Italian families each year, preserve them for a short period, and then place them into the hands of ophthalmic surgeons so that transplants can be performed,” says Francesca Pateri, President of the Italian Society of Eye Banks. The centers are located across the entire Italian territory, from north to south, in Bologna, Cosenza, Fabriano, Genoa, L’Aquila, Lucca, Monza, Naples, Pavia, Rome, Turin, and Venice.
These centers preserve the cornea—the thin, transparent tissue located at the front of the eye that is vital for visual function. It can be donated through a non-invasive procedure performed on deceased donors and transplanted without the need for complex donor-recipient matching, as the cornea lacks blood vessels. This results in no need for immunosuppressive therapies in the recipient and low rejection rates.
8,433 TRANSPLANTS IN THE LAST YEAR, WITH TISSUES TAILORED TO THE PATIENT’S EYE
The distribution of ocular tissue for every corneal transplant—totaling 8,433 in 2024 according to data reported by the CNT—depends on the eye bank network, which is integrated into the National Health Service and operates in synergy with the Italian transplantation network.
“This delicate work has become increasingly sophisticated over the years and relies on daily, close collaboration with ophthalmologists,” President Pateri continues. “Eye banks are called upon to meet the surgeon’s needs by providing increasingly customized ocular tissues, modeled to the individual patient’s eye and obtained through highly technological processing.”
AIMO ETS, THE OPHTHALMOLOGISTS: DONATION RESTORES LIGHT. EYE BANKS ARE A PILLAR FOR SURGEONS
“We are deeply proud to have supported and significantly contributed to this initiative of great human and social value. It offers many people suffering from severe corneal pathologies a new chance at life, thanks to the extraordinary power of giving. The invaluable work performed daily by Eye Banks represents a fundamental pillar that allows surgeons to operate safely and with high-quality tissues. This is a system that can only exist thanks to the generosity and awareness of the public,” declared the President of AIMO ETS, Alessandra Balestrazzi.
“We invite everyone to watch the wonderful video created to promote this important message and to become ambassadors for the importance of organ and tissue donation: an act of profound solidarity that can restore light, hope, and a future,” President Balestrazzi continued.
A.I.CHE., THE PATIENTS: EVERY DONATED CORNEA IS A CONCRETE CHANCE AT A NEW LIFE
“For a person with keratoconus, a corneal transplant can represent the only chance to see again and therefore to reclaim their daily life,” explains Rinaldo Lisario, President of A.I.CHE. “The gift of a cornea is not only a gesture of great generosity, but an act that restores hope, independence, and a future. For this reason, as the Italian Keratoconus Association, we believe it is essential to further raise public awareness about the value of organ and corneal donation, and to support the entire chain of professionals who, through the Eye Banks, make it possible to transform a gift into a new visual life for thousands of patients every year. Every donated cornea is much more than tissue: it is a concrete opportunity for a person to return to living fully, with hope and gratitude toward those who made this new beginning possible.”
