Eye on the future

Dubai-based doctor develops revolutionary cataract procedure

Dr Sunita Agarwal, a Dubai-based ophthalmologist, recently did a live demonstration of a revolutionary cataract procedure called Phakonit at the annual convention of the All-India Ophthalmological Society, at Ahmedabad, India. This was also telecast to an audience of over 5,000 eye surgeons watching it live at the Wills Eye hospital, Philadelphia.

"Phakonit is an advanced form of eye surgery using lasers, where a cataract procedure is completed through an opening as tiny as 900microns (0.9mm)," said Dr Agarwal, who developed this highly evolved method along with her research and development team from Dr Sunita Agarwal's Eye Clinic in Dubai and Hospital in Chennai, India.

A rollable lens is then implanted through the opening with the help of an injector designed by the doctor herself. This lens opens itself and sits in its place in the intra-occular bag. All this is done in just 10 minutes!

Conventionally, cataract surgery is done through an opening of 6mm, while the more advanced ones would go down to 2.25 to 3mm. "Eye surgery is mainly laser work now," she said. "What is advantageous and attractive is that in most of the laser works on the eye these days, not a single drop of blood comes out of the system, there is no pain (a big gain), no sutures to be given, no patching up of the eye and no hospitalisation."

Additionally, the entire procedure is very quick. "One could actually drive back straight from the doctor," added the ophthalmologist, who aims at giving vision to as many people as possible and in the least amount of time.

She is always on the lookout for techniques that would quicken her efforts towards that goal. This doctor with a spiritual bent of mind firmly believes that necessity is the mother of invention. "Every day I'm doing atleast 25-30 cases… it's just that much more evolution," she remarked.
Dr Agarwal is the only chief instructor from Asia at the American Academy of Ophthalmology. "Technology is so much on the cutting edge these days that we have surgeons come from all over the world to learn this technique."

Talking of conditions that affect the eye most, this doctor, who is a fitness freak, firmly believes that we can learn a lot from food these days. "It is not just the food we eat or how we prepare it, but the energy that goes into the making of food that is important," she stressed.

Under stressed conditions, like in the Middle East, diabetes and hypertension are always on the rise. Both these conditions could affect the eye to a very great extent. She also suggests getting the eye tested every year after the age of 40.

"On an average, two per cent of our population stands the chance of developing glaucoma, an eye condition where the pressure in the eye builds up too high, which in turn presses upon the nerve and kills it. But if this problem is detected right at the developmental stage, the nerve can be kept alive for a lifetime with laser treatment.

Dr Agarwal has also suggested use of alternative therapies, for improving vision. "Most of them, be it meditation, relaxation, yoga, reflexology or massage, teach us to tune our activities with our inner self. These are exercises that help us go back into thinking what we are doing, breathing consciously and calming down the mind," pointed out the philosophical ophthalmologist. She attributes belief in her intuition to the development of various laser techniques that she has now perfected.