22 November 2010
By Umesh Isalkar
Pune, India
The dislocated intra–ocular lens of a 72–year–old man was literally ‘glued’ back in place using a ‘special gum’ made of human tissues. The person was among the three people who were operated at the National Institute of Ophthalmology (NIO) here, using the novel technique on Sunday.
Instead of the conventional method of suturing the lens back, eye surgeon Amar Agarwal from Chennai used his own technique of gluing the lens to the eye. Over 250 doctors from across the country attended the demonstration, which was part of a seminar on glued intra–ocular lens (IOL) surgeries, to learn the technique which they found ‘less traumatic and more effective than stitching the lens’.
Agarwal is the pioneer in using the glue for IOL transplant surgeries. "The special glue has been used in urological and plastic surgeries. However, the first glued IOL surgery was conducted in Chennai in 2007.
I operated three patients at NIO to show how eye surgeons can make use of the technique which is far simple than conventional suturing,"
Agarwal told TOI in an exclusive interview on Sunday. Over 1,000 patients have been benefited by his glue assisted sutureless IOL implantation. The post–operative follow up of the patients also showed good results, he added.
According to Agarwal, the glued IOL technique is useful in those patients who have poor support of the natural eye lens due to some injury, genetic problems or anatomical defect.
"In most of these cases nothing could be done about the problem. However, with the glue technique, we can provide treatment for patients whose intra–ocular lens capsule is missing. Besides, since the glue is made of human tissues, there is no adverse reaction," Agarwal said.
"Sutures sometimes don’t fit the IOL transplant properly and leave the lens dangling. But in the glue technique, the lens remains stuck where it is implanted," Agarwal added.
The fixing of intra–ocular lens in patients without capsular support (natural fibres of the lens) was always challenging to eye surgeons. "The glued IOL technique is less traumatic and more effective than stitching the lens," said eye surgeon Aditya Kelkar of NIO who learnt the technique from Agarwal and is one of the few eye surgeon to use the technique in Pune.
The surgeries took around 25 minutes and all the three patients were discharged within half a day.
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