Aims Seeks To Develop a Corneal Dystrophy Patient Group

Leading eye research charity, Fight for Sight, has awarded over £157,000 to a joint research project led by the Universities of Ulster and Dundee to develop a treatment for various forms of corneal dystrophy – a group of inherited disorders leading to damage to the surface of the eye and progressive visual impairment.

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The most significant worldwide advances in corneal surgery to take place in the last forty years

A report from the WHO in 2001 highlighted that diseases affecting the cornea are a major cause of blindness worldwide. Corneal blindness can occur due to lesions affecting the front of the cornea, the back of the cornea or even the middle portion of the cornea also the whole corneal thickness can be affected.

Historically the mainstay of treatment to correct any of these problems has been full-thickness corneal grafts which always result in high levels of astigmatism and mean each patient has a risk of rejection of the transplanted cornea. Refractive surgery has now produced major advances in instrumentation to enable correction of short or long sight. Some of the same instruments have now been adapted to use in transplantation surgery to manage serious corneal problems

Professor Johnny Moore from the Cathedral Eye Clinic, Mater Hospital Belfast and the University of Ulster recently trained in Italy with Dr Massimo Busin who has revolutionized the treatment of these corneal problems.

Professor Moore has now brought this surgery back to Northern Ireland where patients who originally were not offered corneal surgery due to the risk of immunological rejection can now be treated with these revolutionary new surgical techniques. Patients who would have until very recently required full thickness corneal transplantation surgery requiring long periods of recuperation with management of astigmatism and suture removal often continuing beyond 12 months. These patients can have quick painless surgery requiring only local anaesthesia and can have sutures removed after 2-3 weeks. 

 Patients with front of the corneal problems can have this area selectively replaced, those with only the middle region of the cornea affected can have this central portion of cornea dissected with extreme precision and replaced with donor cornea a form of surgery never available prior to the use of these techniques.

Though this surgery is extremely complex and technically difficult, these are the most significant advances in corneal surgery to take place in the last forty years.

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BELFAST DIRECTOR INVESTS IN NEW VISION

Belfast Director, Pamela Dowds, has a keen eye for the small print, but when her near vision started to fail and her need for reading glasses took over shedecided to take decisive action and renew her eyes.  Just as a troublesome knee or hip can now be replaced, she was delighted to find that she could have the lens of her eyes renewed.

Pamela a director of Minprint needs excellent vision, not just for the facts and figures of running a business but also for checking the fine detail of the company’s printing business.  Golf was a challenge too, with good vision needed for seeing the ball land on the greens and filling out the score card.

“My eyesight had become really inconvenient, and I was always hunting for my glasses for the computer, for checking the price tags when shopping of whatever else I did.  Reading had become the greatest annoyance as I needed my glasses for everything,” she said.

Pamela was referred by her optician to specialist, Professor Jonathan Moore, Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at the Cathedral Eye Clinic, Belfast, to discussthe latest eye treatments.

Professor Moore revealed that as well as the natural aging of the eye that leads to the need for reading glasses, Pamela’s distance vision was not as good as it should be, particularly for driving.

She was delighted to find that the need for glasses could be removed by the most advanced eye surgery, returning her vision to that of a 25 year old.

In a short, painless, procedure Professor Moore removed the aged natural lens of the eye and inserted an advanced multifocal intraocular lens, called a ReZoom, to restore focus and quality of vision. Some days later, after a further consultation to assess Pamela’s renewed sight in her right eye, another lenscalled a Tecnis multifocal was selected for Pamela’s left eye to ensure excellent near vision.

Professor Moore, a leader in this field of eye surgery, believes this option solves many issues for people who want to be free of their glasses and contact lenses. The procedure enables the replacement lens to be customised to the person’s individual visual needs.  This staged technique of using two slightly different multifocal lens designs, provides the patient with seamless vision at all distances with many patients not needing glasses again.

Pamela is delighted with the results – “I didn’t feel a thing – it was so quick and painless.  I had perfect vision straight away and I would make the choice again, ten times over!

“I spend a lot of time working on the computer and I now find that I don’t get theheadaches as I used to.  It has made everything so much easier – not just for reading, but also for driving with improved vision for reading number plates and signs. You really notice the difference when you get your vision back….I didn’t realise how much it had deteriorated.”

The other positive news for Pamela is now that her aging natural lenses have been replaced she will not develop cataracts and so should never need eye surgery again.