It is an internationally renown centre for corneal transplantation, ocular surface disease and management of associated disorders ranging from Glaucoma to oculoplastic surgery.

Further subspecialist expertise is established for the diagnosis and surgical and medical treatment of vitreoretinal and macular disorders as well as strabismus.

He trained with the famous founder of the German Ophthalmological Society, Albrecht von Graefe (1828–1870), before becoming chairman of the newly established Eye Hospital of Düsseldorf in 1862.

Ernst Custodis, Professor and chairman of the department from 1946 to 1967, introduced scleral buckling to ophthalmology in 1949 as a revolutionary new concept to treat retinal detachment.

It participates in a number of international multicentre trials on The Universitäts-Augenklinik Düsseldorf has published numerous scientific publications.