Apart from the well staffed Government hospitals staffed with experienced doctors and nurses, it has Arvind Hospitals at Madurai, Tirunelveli,Theni and Coimbatore, Sankara Nethralya at Chennai, Dr Agarwal´s Hospital at Chennai. There is a little known Rural Eye Hospital at Krishnan Kovil about 60 Km from Madurai which provide excellent eye care to all the villages around. Almost all the patients are very poor and hence the treatment is almost entirely free.

LASIK or Refractive Surgery

LASIK or Refractive Surgery is extremely popular and available
for eye care for cornea, squint and glaucoma. The ophthalmic
surgeons have all honed their skills to perfect LASIK, a laser
refractive surgery, is a high-tech surgical procedure for treament of myopia (short sight),astigmatism (cylindrical power) and hypermetropia ( long sight). Using toe power of a computer controlled excimer laser. LASIK changes the shape of the cornea and corrects refractive errors. It restores good working vision without glasses. The cost of the surgery is about $500.

For removal of cataract, the hospital uses the IOL Method. Intra Ocular lens (IOL) is a tiny transparent convex lens. It stays permanently in the eye and does not cause irritation. There are two type of IOL Procedures. In the first procedure, A 10 mm incision is made into the eye, the cataract lens is removed and the IOL is laced in its place and the incision is closed with sutures. This procedure takes about 15 minutes .In the second method, also called the PHACO, or suture less surgery, the incision made is only about 5 mm.The cataract lens is broken into small pieces using ultrasonic waves and removed with a needle. The special IOL is inserted into its place and the incision heals without sutures.

Removal of cataract for both the eyes through the lasik method consists as little as about RS 20000,in most hospitals. This is the equivalent of little over USD 400.Treatment of myopia, astigmatism is available at almost all eye hospitals all over Tamil Nadu .

26 June 2007

INTRALASE

A new equipment ´Intralase Laser´ has been just installed at Dr Agarwal Hospital, Chennai. With the advent of this machine, Lasik goes completely blade-free. This will make corneal eye surgery easier. In a corneal transplant, the donor cornea is sliced into two and placed in the recipient´s eye. The procedure was generally done using a cutting tool. The new equipment will enable the cutting of the cornea through the computer guided precision of a laser. The time taken for the procedure is much shorter and much safer for the patient. The major advantage is that one cornea can be used in more than one transplant because it can slice the cornea layer by layer and each layer can be used on different patients.

The machine can also be used also to correct vision problems like myopia and astigmatism. The cost of treatment will be an additional Rs 10000.