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Grandmother eyes up mini-telescope implant
A grandmother hopes to be the first person in Yorkshire to benefit from a ground-breaking treatment which may also help thousands of others suffering from the most common cause of blindness in the over-fifties.
Roz Jowett was screened for her suitability for the new eye procedure at Yorkshire Eye Hospital in Apperley Bridge by Italian eye surgeons from the University of Milan's San Paolo Hospital who visited the hospital to train consultants in the pioneering implant treatment.
The 57-year-old businesswoman, who suffers from myopic macular degeneration, is losing her eyesight and her condition has reached a point where she can no longer go out alone at night, drive or recognise faces from across a room.
But the new procedure, which is called IOLVIP (intra-ocular lens for visually impaired patients) and involves a miniature telescope being implanted in the eye, is offering hope to the Halifax woman and thousands like her.
Mrs Jowett was born with her condition but the treatment is also a potential lifeline for the thousands of others in Yorkshire who suffer from macular degeneration.
Yorkshire Eye Hospital is the first hospital in Yorkshire and only the second in the UK to offer the treatment.
The procedure involves the surgical implantation of a pair of lenses that divert the image away from the damaged macular and onto a healthy part of the retina using the principle of the Galilean telescope.
While the treatment cannot reverse damage that has been done it can allow the eye to maximise its potential.
Yorkshire Eye Hospital consultant ophthalmologist Mr Shafiq Rehman, who is one of a team of specialists at the hospital carrying out the new treatment, said: "We are delighted to be able to offer this pioneering treatment, which can restore vision in those for whom, up until now, there has been no effective treatment. It is truly gratifying to be able to offer this treatment to patients suffering from conditions such as dry macular degeneration – we hope to be able to provide substantial improvements in vision to many such patients from now on."
The treatment, which costs just under 6,000, is not yet available on the NHS but Mr Rehman hopes this would change.
"I think it would be wrong not to provide it on the NHS," he said. "I think we will be approaching the primary care trusts about it."
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Friday 10 February 2012
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