Curing cataract

'Fullstop-size cure' for cataract

Two tiny incisions are made on each side of the eye

Wednesday, 20 February 2008, 13:04 GMT
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7251345.stm


New technology has significantly reduced the length of the incision needed to remove eye cataracts.

Using the Stellaris machine surgeons need only to make two 1.8mm cuts on either side of the eye. Usually a cut of up to 2.7mm is needed.

Experts say a smaller cut means patients have fewer problems focusing afterwards and need less after-care.

The device has been trialled in a number of hospitals and is now being sold to NHS trusts for £70,000.

Stellaris guides the surgeon as they make required incisions.

The clouded lens inside is then broken up using ultrasound and sucked out, and a new folded lens is injected into the space, where it is unfurled.

One in three people over the age of 65 has a cataract, cloudy or opaque areas that develop in the normally transparent lens of the eye.

Surgery to remove them is the most common operation in the NHS, with 300,000 carried out each year.

Back to normal

Current techniques already mean that a patient can be up and returning to normal activities almost immediately after the operation. Stitches are now rarely required.

But proponents say what is new about the technology is the size of the incision - about the size of a fullstop on a page.

This, according to Sheraz Daya, a consultant ophthalmologist at Queen Victoria Hospital, "makes it safer because the eye contents remain steady, under very precise control by the surgeon.

"It's a very quick and efficient procedure, it's painless, no stitches and they can get up and walk out straight afterwards without the need for a patch and little danger of infection."

Other consultants agreed with Mr Daya's assessment, although they stressed that Stellaris was not the only device capable of reducing the incision to 1.8mm.

At least two others, known as Sovereign and Infinity, are also available.

"All these technologies are a move in the right direction", said Larry Benjamin, an eye surgeon at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. "Smaller cuts are better, while the mechanism keeps the eye steady."

"The only problem is many of the lenses on the market aren't yet small enough to fit through this kind of incision, so one side of the technology has yet to catch up with the other."