Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

The Singapore National Eye Center (SNEC) has restored sight to the blind through a medical procedure called Osteo-Odonto0Keratoprosthesis, or tooth-in-eye, according to a news release issued by medical center.

The procedure is highly complex, performed in two stages and requiring a team of 15 specialists from radiology, dental and eye. It is currently only performed in Singapore, India and Japan.

“We have successfully restored vision to the most severe cases of patients who had been blinded in accidents and chemical burns. Some suffered from Stevens Johnson Syndrome (SJS), while others have had multiple corneal graft failures. In all our cases, maximal visual potential has been achieved,” says Professor Donald Tan, Head of Corneal Service and Director at SNEC.

SJS is a rare but life-threatening condition in which blisters forms on the skin, mouth and eyes, causing complications such as dehydration, infection, blindness and even death. SJS is often caused by a serious adverse reaction to common medications such as ibuprofen, antibiotics and anti-seizure durgs.

In the first phase of surgery, “First, the eye is opened up and the entire inner surface of the eyelids, cornea and scar tissues are removed. We then transplant the inner mucosal lining of the cheek onto the new eye surface. Next, we remove a canine tooth and some of the adjacent bone from the patient. We shave this down, drill a hole then fit it with an artificial cornea made of a medical-grade plastic optical cylinder. After this, we implant it into the patient’s cheek to grow a new blood supply,” he says.

Two months later, “We open the cheek mucosal lining over the eye, remove the tooth-bone-cylinder from the cheek and insert this into the cornea.”

Since all the “hardware” – tissue, bone and tooth – are taken from the patient, there is no issue of rejection whatsoever. After the final surgery, light is able to enter through the plastic cylinder, and patients will be able to regain good vision, Tan says. “Over half of our patients achieve 20/20 vision, three-quarters regain at least driving vision of 20/40, and the rest have reached their best visual potential.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 at 9:08 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.