It has been 101 years since Dr. Eduard Zirm performed the first successful penetrating keratoplasty (PKP). He operated on the eyes of an itinerant farm worker
who had been blinded by alkali. In the ensuing 50 years, technical advances by
such greats as Filitov, Castroviejo, and others have brought us into the era of successful corneal transplantation, where a 90% success rate is an accepted fact (Figure1). Advances in the understanding of corneal immunology and rejection, microsurgical instrumentation, and sutures have made this a reality, and modern eye banking has been an integral part of the progress. However, the technique for standard penetrating corneal graft has remained largely unchanged over the past 40 to 50 years, and lamellar corneal transplants, while popularized in the last century by physicians such as Von Hippel, have not enjoyed great success due to difficulties with interface clarity. Therefore, while advances in retina, glaucoma, and other subspecialties rocketed forward, changes in corneal surgery have been slower. Recently, however, this trend has been reversed with the development of new techniques and devices for corneal transplantation. This issue of Ophthalmology Rounds presents an overview of the advances in corneal transplantation. Read the rest of this entry »

Your Eyes

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary cataract is defined as – “A clouding of the lens of the eye or its surrounding transparent membrane that obstructs the passage of light.” Studies say that cataract is the most widespread problem that occurs in the eye and affects most as we grow older.

Your eye is one of the most active parts of your body. It is used twenty four seven.

You realize you are growing older and time is running out – you realize you aren’t seeing things right. Your vision is weak, blurry and unfocussed. Your eyes are most likely experiencing cataracts.

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The principle of laser hair removal
The main principle behind laser hair removal is selective photothermolysis. The laser is used to damage the local area of hair growth without affecting or heating the other areas of skin. Thus the dark area on the skin which is melanin gets most of the concentrated light or heat. This produces an intense heat that damages the hair follicle and inhibits future hair growth within that follicle, without causing damage to the surrounding tissue. Melanin is considered the primary chromophore for all hair removal treatment. Melanin occurs naturally and it gives us our skin & hair color.

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What is Keratoconus? To understand Keratoconus, one must first understand the anatomy of the eye. The eye has a clear dome on the front, kind of like the crystal on a watch. This clear dome is called the cornea and works as a lens to the eye, to focus images in the eye and allow us to see. Since it is a lens, it must be 1) Transparent and 2) Smooth of regular curvature. In some people, this is not the case. The cornea is irregular in shape or even scarred and not transparent. One disorder that has an irregular cornea is called Keratoconus, and results because the cornea is weak in some way. The cornea then bulges forward and becomes irregular, bumpy in shape. You can imagine that a lens of this sort would not focus a camera well, and also in Keratoconus, the bulging cornea focuses a very blurry image. In mild cases, glasses may correct the problem, or more usually, contact lenses. Why are contact lenses needed? A hard or gas permeable lens will mask the irregular cornea in Keratoconus and act as a smooth lens for the eye. The problem is, that the cornea in Keratoconus can become steeper and more irregular with time. This makes it difficult to fit a contact lens, sort of like trying to balance a flat plate on top of a pencil. This makes the contact lenses uncomfortable and makes the wearing time too short for some people to accomplish their daily work and interferes with their life activities.

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What is IntraLase Enabled Keratoplasty? Keratoplasty is an operation on the Cornea. The Cornea is the clear dome on the front of the eye, like a watch glass that covers the front of a wristwatch. It is normally clear and transparent (about half a millimeter in thickness) and functions as the window and lens of eye so that light can pass through it and focus on the Retina. Like a camera, the eye has a lens system, the cornea being the major part of that lens system. The light that enters the eye is focused on to the retina, like the film in a camera. The image formed is transmitted to the brain, where it is interpreted as vision, giving us the powerful sense of sight. Now, if the cornea is defective, and by that I mean, irregular or cloudy, then a clear image is not formed on the retina, and vision is poor. We cannot fix many things that go wrong with the eye, but we can fix the cornea. Just like a window that has been damaged, we can swap out the window of the eye (the Cornea) and replace it. This was done first in a human in 1906, and has become a common form of treatment for many corneal problems such as Keratoconus, Corneal dystrophies and scars from infection or trauma.

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LASIK and PRK at our Toronto Centre

If you want a plain English understanding of the benefits you will receive from our Toronto laser eye correction options, please read on. Advanced Wavefront -LASIK Vision Correction Customized laser vision correction offers sharpest vision results - night or day

Advanced Wavefront -LASIK Vision Correction can be the surest, safest means of getting the best possible results from your laser eye surgery procedure. Here’s why:

Every eye has unique imperfections or aberrations. Think of them as providing the same kind of identifying detail about your eye that a fingerprint would for your finger. The Wavefront; guided laser technology we use in your customized LASIK procedure identifies those unique imperfections in your eyes and allows us to correct them. Wavefront technology creates a detailed, three-dimensional map of each of your eyes. The process allows a ray of safe light to pass through the eye and then compare the distortions that appear against the pattern from an optically perfect eye.

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