Surgery in Live Transmission – Surgery (20.12.2006)

Prague, Tuesday, 9:30am
It is the D-day. Of course that in spite of my resolution to stay icily calm, I was thinking of all catastrophic scenarios at night. Fortunately the reality was totally different. It is necessary to undergo the pre-surgery examination and final examination before the surgery. The optometrist needs to verify a current state of your eye and afterwards you can proceed to the pre-surgery preparation. The nurse changed my clothes and I received a sterile coat, sterile cap and shoe covers. Afterwards I was waiting about half an hour with other patients in the room before the operating theatre. I received diazepan against anxiety, which is normal. While you are waiting, the nurse is putting drops to your eyes and you can proceed to the surgery. Before the surgery itself the surgeon explained me again the technique of the surgery including what is expected from me during the surgery itself (fixing different colourful points). Just before the surgery I received a big teddy dog. Patients have to hold it tight by both hands during the surgery. The nurse asked me to lie in a bed, she fixed my eyelashes and eyelids using a special tape and they placed a gag to the eye that stabilizes its position. 

Surgery
During the whole surgery you must fix colourful points according to instructions of the doctor. I perceived the surgery itself more like slightly unpleasant pressure than pain. I underwent the surgery of both eyes at once and the laser was used for about 40 seconds on each eye. What surprised me a lot was the fact that immediately after the surgery I could see. It is true that the vision was blurry but I could have recognized individual objects. I passed other twenty minutes in the waiting room. It is important to let the eyes closed in order the eye movement cannot push the lamella. Eyes are rather sensitive after the surgery and I felt tingling and stinging. Nevertheless the doctor assured me that it is normal and it belongs to the surgery.  After twenty minutes I underwent the examination to verify whether the lamella stayed at its place. I received antibiotic and calming drops that must be used every four hours. It is strictly forbidden to rub eyes or to touch them because the lamella could change its position.
The doctor drew my attention to the fact that a small bruise appeared in one eye. This bruise will be like a small stain but my vision should improve every hour. The control examination proved that the lamella did not move and everything passed off well. Tomorrow I have another control examination.
We will put the video recording the surgery on www.aktualne.cz in several hours.

Source: www.aktualne.cz
Author: Barbora Dvořáková
Read tomorrow another part of the report: Day after the surgery.

Surgery in Live Transmission – Examination (19.12.2006)

Mrs. Barbora Dvořáková, the editor, will undergo one of the most often performed laser eye surgeries at the Eye Clinic Lexum in Prague on Tuesday 19th December 2006. And visitors of the server www.aktualne.cz will get to know how such a surgery is performed. You can also assist to it.

Which type of surgery will it be? And why a laser surgery? Laser eye surgeries become more and more popular. About ten thousand people a year undergo a laser eye surgery in the Czech Republic. Using this laser eye surgery doctors remove dioptric defects and patients can stop wearing glasses and contact lenses forever. In spite of the fact that surgeries of this type have been performed for several years there are still a lot of rumours and unclearness in public.  Visitors of the server www.aktualne.cz have the possibility to discover already tomorrow what everything is hidden behind this surgery and Mrs. Barbora Dvořáková will share with them all her feelings. She has already undergone the examination which took place on Monday 18th December 2006 at 12:00am. 
„If you wear contact lenses almost all the time as me, at least three days before your pre-surgery examination you cannot wear them and you must wear only glasses. Wearing contact lenses could distort results of the examination. I received instructions at the Eye Clinic Lexum to reserve about three hours for this pre-surgery examination, arrive without makeup and count with the fact that the vision will be for the rest of the day rather blurry so it is out of question to drive a car or do similar activities,“ mentions Mrs. Barbora Dvořáková in her article on www.aktualne.cz. By the way during her report she finds out that: „there is no point to come for a pre-surgery examination if your dioptric defect is not fixed for minimum one year or if you are not 18 (children under 18 can undergo these laser surgeries only exceptionally). Also pregnant and breastfeeding women cannot undergo the surgery.“
At 1:20pm Mrs. Barbora Dvořáková has her eyes examined and it is already clear that she is a right candidate for the surgery. „First you are asked to fill in the detailed questionnaire which describes your defect, wearing glasses, contact lenses and other facts that are important for doctors. Afterwards you need to undergo several examinations and tests that examine and describe in details cts that are important for doctors. other etailed questionnaire which casesct is not minimum one year your dioptric defect.“ After a detailed examination the doctor informed Mrs. Barbora Dvořáková that she will undergo tomorrow the LASIK surgery.
 
Read tomorrow the continuation of the online report and look at video recording the surgery!

Contest Entitled Colours of Autumn Has Already its Winner (12.12.2006)

Our clinic received several tens of competition stories and the jury was evaluating these stories for a rather long time to choose definitely three winners. In accordance with the conditions of the contest Colours of Autumn we asked visitors of our web pages to send us stories that happened them while wearing glasses or contact lenses. We read stories that were suspenseful, peculiar and sometimes nearly incredible. One would say that nothing similar can ever happen, mainly if we know that the title role of these stories is plaid  "just" by ordinary glasses.
We have carefully read all the stories and finally chose one entitled “Campfire” that was written by Mrs. Lenka Kocfeldová. The story happened one fateful day which was not perhaps very happy for our winner. However today she thinks of it with a smile. The first prize of the contest Colours of Autumn that Lenka won with her successful literary work is the possibility to undergo a laser refractive surgery at the Eye Clinic Lexum free of charge. 
Other two successful stories that the jury chose to award were sent by Ivana Hálová and Petra Lapišová. We would like also to congratulate these two women for whom we have prepared medical examinations free of charge.
And what are the feelings of our winner? „I am so happy, it is really unbelievable,“ said Mrs. Lenka Kocfeldová who finally decided to hand the prize over to her sister-in-law. „I cannot undergo the surgery myself as I have become pregnant.“ Let us congratulate our winner to this wonderful news too. Finally we thank very much all of you for sending us your stories. We wish you Merry Christmas and a successful step towards the New Year 2007.

Devil and St. Nicolas Performed a Theatrical Play (08.12.2006)

A Russian fairy tale, “Twelve Months”, presents from St. Nicolas and sweets at the end. This could be a short summary of a Thursday party organized for about thirty children mainly of Prague ophthalmologists who cooperate with the Eye Clinic Lexum. Actors from the small puppet theatre Romaneto prepared the stage in one of the meeting rooms of the hotel Corinthia Panorama. After a one hour performance during which children supported good Maruška and shouted at her bad sister Holena, St. Nicolas started to give away presents. But St. Nicolas and Devil did not take anything out of the magic bag for free. Children had to say a poem or sing a song and only afterwards they received chocolate figures. This year Devil did not take anybody to hell...

Christmas Meeting of Ophthalmologists (07.12.2006)

More than one hundred ophthalmologists arrived in the Congress Hall of IKEM on Wednesday 6th December to attend the Christmas seminar that was organized by the Eye Clinic Lexum. In spite of the fact that lectures revealed to ophthalmologists today’s news in refractive surgery doctors were also familiarized with discoveries and progresses in cataract surgery. Almost a three hour seminar was terminated with a lecture of Ivan Fišer, MD. The above mentioned evaluated in his lecture a half year experience with age-related macular degeneration treatment using intraocular Avastin injections. (AMD is a degenerative change in the centre of the retina, the so-called macula that enables the sharp vision which is necessary for reading or driving. It appears with a gradual loss of the central vision. The first symptoms of the disease can be a partially blurred vision or often a blurred or distorted image.) After the lectures ophthalmologists had the possibility to spend informally a pleasant time with their colleagues. This time lectures were held by:  Martin Filipec, MD. –  What we are doing differently in refractive surgery, Drahomíra Baráková, MD  – What we are doing differently in cataract surgery, Josef Hycl, MD  – Convergence of the cataract and refractive surgery, Alena Holubová, MD  – Indication for laser and intraocular refractive surgery and photorefractive keratectomy for myopia: results received after ten years.

Afghan Doctor in the Patient’s Role (05.12.2006)

Two Afghan doctors Najeebullaha Osmaniho and Yousufa Mahbooba arrived in Prague to visit their Czech colleagues. Head of this professional training programme is Martin Filipec, MD from the Eye Clinic Lexum who met both doctors during his stays in the NOOR Hospital in Kabul within the framework of the project Ajamal. This project has been launched in autumn last year and its main mission is to teach Afghan doctors to transplant the cornea. Corneal disease – defect of the anterior transparent ocular wall - belongs to the most serious eye defects. These defects cause total blindness in 25% cases in the whole world. Thinning or blurring of the cornea can appear after an accident, etching of the eye or infections but it can be also inherited. The only hope for patients with this diagnosis is transplantation which improves or returns the vision.  
Since the middle of August 2006 doctors have performed 70 surgeries in Afghanistan. Individual donators from the Czech Republic contribute to purchase corneas for the poorest people in Afghanistan.
The situation of the health care is very complicated in Afghanistan. Till nowadays there is no system of health insurance. The state guarantees a complimentary health care but has no means for it.
 
Afghan doctors are trained in the Eye Clinic Lexum in the individual fields of ophthalmology in which the clinic specializes. It includes refractive surgery, cataract and glaucoma treatment, treatment of retina and vitreous humour, strabismus treatment. One of the doctors, Najeebullah Osmani has decided to undergo a laser refractive surgery after one week of training. Thus he tried the patient's role too. The surgery was performed on Tuesday 5th December in the afternoon and according to his surgeon Mr. Filipec, MD the surgery exceeded expectations.

Laser Catches Every Single Eye Movement (04.12.2006)

The Eye Clinic Lexum in Ostrava has already been using a special medical device - MEL80 laser for a year. Nowadays this laser belongs among the fastest lasers of its type. Most of surgeries are performed in 30 seconds. A short exposure of laser radiation means a better delicacy towards the fine tissues of the cornea and faster returning of the vision. The strength of a laser ray is only 0,7 mm. And why is the surgery so exceptional? During the surgery the laser uses its special tracking device called „eye-tracker“ and watches the eye and its movements. During the surgery the laser can record the slightest change of the position. If there is a bigger eye movement the laser is automatically switched off and we can continue in the surgery only after its stabilization. During several milliseconds the laser compensates a laser ray position in such a way that it falls on a given place.
In these days the MEL80 laser in Ostrava was improved and it has some new functions including the so-called Iris Registration. Like this the laser enables to catch a detailed map of the iris during examinations and surgeries (a three-dimensional eye registration) and so rotative eye movements can be corrected. This ability is very important for example in Premium therapy ("prepared to patient’s needs") and also in astigmatism treatment.
Besides this ability the MEL80 laser has another new function – the so-called Topolink. It can be used mainly for treatment of irregular corneal defects that are either inherent or they appear after an accident or after surgeries. In these cases the laser can interconnect with the corneal topography according to which the treatment is automatically done.

Interest in Keratocon Treatment is Increasing (01.12.2006)

Corrections of irregular curving of the cornea (mainly in the case of Keracoton) using KeraRings / ICRS have been executed at our workplace for more than 3 months (see the news from 16th August 2006). As the time goes the interest of patients increases and this procedure belongs among the commonly performed surgeries. The interest of patients can be explained by a good reputation of our workplace but also by a rather advantageous price. Patients of the Eye Clinic Lexum will pay for the above mentioned surgery only 25 000,- CZK whereas other workplaces (including the state ones) charge up to 40.000,- CZK. For more information please look at http://www.jank.cz/medicalvision/operativa/kera.htm

Lexum Has a Strong Partner (24.11.2006)

The Eye Clinic Lexum represented by its general manager Mr. Petr Zempliner and the 1st Faculty of Medicine of Charles University represented by its dean Tomáš Zima, MD have concluded a cooperation contract. Thus the Eye Clinic Lexum became a partner workplace of the 1st Faculty of Medicine of Charles University. The subject of the above mentioned contract is cooperation in the education of students and doctors or another university staff, but also cooperation in the scientific research, problems of accreditations and increase of qualification of the staff.

Hanuš Kraus, MD Deceased (20.11.2006)

Dr. Hanuš Kraus (born on 31st March 1928) died on 16th November 2006. We were deeply affected by this news. It affected all of us who worked with him and for whom Mr. Kraus was the first teacher, advisor and example. During his life he became a doyen and one of the most important personalities of the Czechoslovak ophthalmology. Dr. Kraus was always a man who was bringing progress and initiating all of us - in that period young ophthalmologists - to discover new things. He moved borders of the modern ophthalmology forward. He was a pioneer of the modern microsurgery, mainly in the field of cornea transplantation and glaucoma and cataract surgery. As the chief ophthalmologist of Czechoslovakia and long-time head physician of the 2nd Eye Clinic of the 1st Faculty of Medicine of Charles University he brought up a whole new generation of ophthalmologists who nowadays lead the Czech and Slovak ophthalmology. In 1993 he was one of the first ophthalmologists who participated in the establishment of the Eye Clinic Lexum in Prague. Nearly till the last days of his life he was very active, he held lectures, he engaged in the clinical ophthalmology and he always shared his rich experiences with students and young doctors. 
Death of Mr. Kraus, our dear professor, Hanuš, means a big loss for the Czech ophthalmology and for all of us who met him within the framework of our profession. 
Death always breaks up something but we can console ourselves because something was preserved and something still continues. Mr. Kraus belongs to those persons who are never forgotten. This outstanding ophthalmologist and eminent personality left a deep trace that cannot disappear. The whole life he tried to respect the following idea: „When you are going up behave towards the others in such a way that you would like them to behave towards you when you are going down“. We liked him not only as an expert and teacher always so willing to help us but also as a nice and perceptive friend. What he passed to all of us who could have worked with him will live further together with his memory. 
Martin Filipec, MD
Alena Holubová, MD
Eye Clinic Lexum