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Is Indian cornea less thick?
But, many accuse them of creating "unnecessary panic".
Thus, unscrupulous laser eye surgery without proper screening for patients age, corneal thickness and suitability may lead to permanent eye damage, Dr R B Vajpayee, professor at the R P Centre, whose team carried out the study, said. He also called for guidelines and formation of a body on the lines of US' Federal Drug Agency to control surgical procedures.
"Every year we receive about 8-10 cases with complications after laser surgery carried out at other clinics. In the extreme cases, corneal graft may be needed," Vajpayee said adding "I have operated two young patients who developed cataract in both eyes after laser surgery".
Dr K P S Mallik, head of the Eye Department at Safdarjung Hospital, said "I have seen many cases of complications after laser surgery. Serious problems like corneal bulging, opacity, retinal detachment and retinal hemorrhage may result in some cases".
Supporting Vajpayee's idea for control, he said FDA controls every new procedure while in India there was no control over surgical procedures. The AIIMS study was planned after the centre saw cases of corneal bulging. "We measured the corneal thickness of about 600 patients and 1,069 eyes. The findings were presented at the International Conference of Refractive Surgery," Vajpayee said.
Dr Noshir Shroff of the Shroff Eye Hospital concurred saying that Indian cornea was slightly on the thinner side. However, the Indian pupil was smaller than the Western, meaning that lesser tissue needed to be removed for correcting a particular error. The baseline is that 410 microns of cornea should be left behind after the surgery, he said. "We have not come across any thinning of cornea," Shroff said adding if the protocol was observed in terms of age (minimum age is 18), the thickness of cornea, its topography, stability of vision for at least one year there should not be any complications. (Agencies) Published on 5th August, 2002
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Copyright
2008, Chennai Interactive
Business Services (P) Ltd. |
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After the established predisposition towards heart diseases, Indians, especially those with short sight, may be at a disadvantage on another count - that is thickness of cornea, the eye part crucial for laser surgery to get rid of glasses, if scientists at the premier R P Centre at AIIMS are to be believed.
Warning against indiscriminate "selling of the laser eye surgery as a commodity" to those who want to get rid of glasses, the scientists at the Centre claim that thickness of Indian cornea is less than that in Caucasians (western people).
The laser surgery to correct sight involves removal of a part of cornea. If it got thinned beyond a point, the cornea might bulge out, leading to further increase in the error rather than any correction, he said.
Out of 10 people, 2-3 usually were not fit for the laser surgery, he said warning if surgery was done on them, the eyes might be permanently damaged or at least vision might deteriorate.
He said the problem was that patients were not enlightened about risks involved and the selection was not done properly. There had also been reports that the knife, which should be disposed of after one surgery, was sometimes used more than once, resulting in dissatisfactory results due to blunting.
The thickness of the cornea in Indians was about 40-50 microns less than in Caucasians (Westerners). While the thickness in Westerners is about 557 microns, the study found to it about 519 microns in Indians.
