Eye surgery

Our procedures:

Refractive laser cornea surgery has made considerable progress since its appearance twenty-five years ago. There are different techniques that can offer a personalized treatment. Laser eye surgery, known as refractive, considers the cornea as a contact lens. By acting directly on its shape and its optical power, it aims to change the path of light rays to allow a precise focus on the retina, as would simple glasses or a contact lens. By intervening on the thickness of the cornea, people, suffering from myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, presbyopia, do not need to wear eyeglasses or contact lenses in most cases. Eye surgery can correct most visual disorders and it has continued to improve.

The most common eye surgeries are laser eye surgery LASIK, refractive lens exchange surgery RLE, cataract procedure CAT, and corneal technical implant. The eligibility of a patient for these interventions does not only depend on the dioptric limits of laser correction, but it is up to the surgeon to determine whether the intervention fits the patient's health condition and needs or not.

This process is done on a case by case basis since it includes a preoperative evaluation and a medical examination with the surgeon. The preoperative evaluation allows the surgeon to know if the patient is eligible for a certain surgery or whether the eye has specific characteristics that may promote the occurrence of certain side effects or not.

Several examinations can be carried out during this evaluation, for example corneal topography evaluating the regularity of the cornea, measurement of the thickness of the cornea, also called pachymetry, pupillometry as well as ORA measurement for Ocular Response Analyzer among other tests. Whereas the medical examination allows the surgeon to detect the relative contraindications of certain non-ocular diseases and their treatments that may interfere with the corneal healing process in these surgeries, so it is essential to report any pathology, ophthalmological or other, whether personal or family and any previous surgeries , especially refractive surgery, during the examination.

The major difference between RLE and Cataract surgery is that refractive lens exchange replaces a clear lens with another one, while the lens is opaque during cataract surgery.

Laser eye surgery

Laser eye surgery, also known as keratomileusis by laser in situ, works by reshaping the cornea or the transparent front part of the eye. Lasik technique is carried in two stages. During the first step, the surgeon cuts and lifts a thin superficial tissue of the cornea, called corneal flap, by using a microprobe with a microkeratome blade. Then, they use the Excimer laser to sculpt the cornea in its thickness. Indeed, Lasik has quickly become the benchmark treatment worldwide for its very comfortable postoperative effects. This procedure is non-invasive It doesn’t necessitate any sutures or bandages. There is also very little or no pain associated with laser vision correction. After LASIK, the patient will no longer need to wear corrective lenses and can benefit from improved vision, immediately or the next day after surgery. The delay between the procedures of each eye can be less than a week.

Refractive lens exchange

Refractive Lens Exchange (RLE) is designed to correct eyesight and treat refractive defects. This technique is recommended for patient who are not eligible to Laser eye surgery or if the latter does not fully correct the curvature of their eye.

This procedure provides patients with stable and long-term results. After the refractive lens exchange, cataract surgery is never necessary since the lens has been removed and replaced with a permanent artificial lens. This can reduce the number of eye procedures required in your life. Refractive lenses change – RLE- can be an alternative to laser eye surgery. Instead of changing the shape of the cornea as seen in laser surgery, the refractive lens exchange is based on putting an artificial lens to correct myopia or far-sightedness. The advantage of the RLE is that the cornea remains intact. This is suitable for people who cannot go through a laser treatment because of very thin corneas or dry eye conditions. Also, people with very high refractive errors, such as near-sightedness or extreme far-sightedness are not ideal candidates for laser vision correction so RLE may be the fitting choice.

Cataract surgery

The Cataracts defect can occur in two ways. The first is attributable to cluster of proteins which reduces the amount of light that reaches the retina. The lens is mainly composed of water and protein. When proteins clump together, they cloud the lens and reduce the amount of light reaching the retina. The opacification can then become so pronounced that it makes vision blurred. The second is when the cataract is small, opacification affects only a small portion of the lens and does not necessarily affect eyesight. Cataracts, however, tend to progress bit by bit, leading the vision to decrease over time. Gradually opacification, and cataracts increase, and the vision becomes more and more veiled or blurry.

This intervention has two main indications, it concerns high myopic and strong hyperopic, those who cannot benefit from laser or a phakic implant, and it includes all cases where a refractive lens multifocal or accommodative is placed without the presence of cataract. In fact, the lens is removed but is replaced by a monofocal implant most often in the myopic or multifocal, especially in the hyperopic. The optimal age range for these procedures is over 55 years old.

Corneal implant

The corneal transplant is used to surgically treat all corneal pathologies that significantly affect its transparency and visual function. The procedure consists in removing the opaque or edematous cornea, either completely in the case of a penetrating keratoplasty, or partially in the case of a lamellar corneal transplant, and replace it with a human cornea. The procedure is performed under local anesthesia, periocular injections, or general, and it lasts about one hour on average.

The cornea is a transparent tissue located at the anterior part of the eye. It is like a porthole that separates and allows us to see the outside world. Its loss of transparency is caused by burn, wound, infection or specific disease. The lack of transparency can also be caused by modification of its morphology especially keratoconus which can induce a loss of vision that frequently leads to blindness.

Its partial or total replacement is then necessary to allow the patient to recover sight. The cornea transplant or keratoplasty consists of the patient's cornea being cut symmetrically by the laser and then being replaced by an implant. the implant will temporarily be held in place until the surgeon performs a scarring by a micro suture within the tissue itself.

Laser cutting is performed with anesthetic eye drops which makes this procedure perfectly painless. A protective shield will be placed on the operated eye overnight and will, if necessary, be replaced by a pair of glasses whose role is to protect the eye operated from possible shocks.

Refractive eye surgeries have many potential benefits, such as the decrease of glasses and contact lenses dependency . In most cases, eyeglass wearers mentioned that they chose one of these procedures for aesthetic reasons. As for the corneal transplant surgery, many people who are visually impaired or blind will regain their normal vision due to this procedure.