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SINGAPORE: In what could be a medical breakthrough in Singapore, corneal transplants may soon be carried out using laser technology instead of by hand.
You've probably heard of Lasik surgery to correct short-sightedness. That same technology could be used to perform corneal transplants.
Clinical trials are underway and the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) hopes to offer it to patients within a year.
Professor Donald Tan, director of Singapore National Eye Centre, said: "Being able to use the laser to do most of the surgery means far greater precision, accuracy and that will immediately translate into much better vision, much better results and also of course, the surgery will be much easier."
SNEC is collaborating with a team in Italy and it hopes that some 80% to 90% of corneal transplants can eventually be performed with laser.
As with any new procedure, the centre says costs will be high initially.
But patients can expect savings in the long-term, because better results mean lesser chance of repeat surgery.
The number of people needing a corneal transplant due to disease and degeneration is likely to increase as Singapore's population ages.
Apart from preventing blindness through corneal transplant, doctors also want to get people off glasses, including those with presbyopia - a condition affecting older people who have problems reading fine print.
The treatment involves inserting a tiny implant which sharpens vision through a pinhole effect. Patients will not be able to feel the implant in their eye nor will it block their vision, because it is only 3.8mm wide and just one-twentieth the thickness of human hair.
It is inserted in the outer layer of only one eye, so the other eye will still be able to see objects far away. The process takes less than 20 minutes, using existing Lasik technologies.
Singapore is the first to perform this procedure and Japan is the only other country to offer it.
Good news as well for those who want to correct various refractive problems.
Professor Donald Tan said: "The latest innovation which we just started to do now is to offer what we call three-in-one surgery. If you have myopia, astigmatism and presbyopia, we can cure all three in one procedure."
The eye centre has performed about 70 presbyopia implants since it was made commercially available in June.
- CNA/ir
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