Advancements in eye care bring relief to those suffering from common age-related ailments such as cataracts, macular degeneration, keratoconus and glaucoma.
Ophthalmologist Dr. Lee Duffner, a staffer at Memorial Regional Hospital, has spent more than three decades in the eye-care field in Hollywood. He has treated countless patients for glaucoma and other age-related eye issues.
Retire? Not on your life. He insists these are, indeed, the good old days.
“It’s more fun to practice. It’s more gratifying to practice today than in years past, simply because we can do more for the patient,” Duffner says.
Among the advancements to treat glaucoma, macular degeneration and cataracts: more powerful and widely available drugs; high-tech equipment that practically puts doctors into the eyeball; and customized lenses tailored to a patient’s needs, post-cataract surgery.
In addition, stem-cell research for the elusive cure of macular degeneration has specialists optimistic.
South Florida is also out front in the treatment of keratoconus, a vision-impairing condition in which the normally dome-shaped cornea progressively thins to cause a cone-like bulge to develop. Corneal crosslinking treatment, using a special UV light source focused on the cornea, is available in only 12 states. In Florida, the procedure is offered only at the Center for Excellence in Eye Care at Baptist Hospital in Kendall.
In August, the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami will also begin treating patients suffering from keratoconus with crosslinking. Today, the treatment is part of a clinical trial.
Keratoconus
“Crosslinking as a treatment stops the condition and makes it better,” said Dr. William Trattler, a corneal and cataract specialist at the Center for Excellence in Eye Care at Baptist. Keratoconus, which affects about one out of 2,000 people domestically, is a progressive disorder which, in about 15 percent of cases, is genetic but is most often caused by rubbing the eyes with the knuckles, rather than gentler fingertips.
“The constant pressure on the cornea leads to warpage,” Trattler said.
The 90-minute crosslinking treatment uses a combination of Riboflavin vitamin B2 drops applied and soaked into the cornea and UV light to strengthen the cornea, resulting in a more normal configuration. Patients might expect to feel scratchiness or sandiness for a little time, but over six months the condition progressively improves post-treatment, Trattler says.
The treatment is still investigational, which means it’s not covered by insurance, and costs range from $2,500 to $4,000 per eye. Trattler has performed the procedure on more than 250 patients at the center.
Results “have been quite dramatic for a lot of patients,” Trattler said.
Cataracts
Osvaldo Lom can often be found competing on the tennis courts at the Biltmore or Salvadore Park in Coral Gables, when he’s not water-skiing, windsurfing or diving.
“I do everything,” he said, even after cataract surgery.
The 61-year-old CPA is on a crowded playing field. Cataract surgery is the most frequently performed surgical procedure in the U.S., with more than 1.5 million procedures per year, according to the Department of Ophthalmology at Stanford University. About one-third of Americans will undergo this surgery at some point. By 2020, it is estimated that 30.1 million Americans will have had or will have a cataract, a bump from 20.5 million in 2000, according to the National Eye Institute’s Eye Diseases Prevalence Research Group.
Retire? Not on your life. He insists these are, indeed, the good old days.
“It’s more fun to practice. It’s more gratifying to practice today than in years past, simply because we can do more for the patient,” Duffner says.
Among the advancements to treat glaucoma, macular degeneration and cataracts: more powerful and widely available drugs; high-tech equipment that practically puts doctors into the eyeball; and customized lenses tailored to a patient’s needs, post-cataract surgery.
In addition, stem-cell research for the elusive cure of macular degeneration has specialists optimistic.
South Florida is also out front in the treatment of keratoconus, a vision-impairing condition in which the normally dome-shaped cornea progressively thins to cause a cone-like bulge to develop. Corneal crosslinking treatment, using a special UV light source focused on the cornea, is available in only 12 states. In Florida, the procedure is offered only at the Center for Excellence in Eye Care at Baptist Hospital in Kendall.
In August, the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami will also begin treating patients suffering from keratoconus with crosslinking. Today, the treatment is part of a clinical trial.
Keratoconus
“Crosslinking as a treatment stops the condition and makes it better,” said Dr. William Trattler, a corneal and cataract specialist at the Center for Excellence in Eye Care at Baptist. Keratoconus, which affects about one out of 2,000 people domestically, is a progressive disorder which, in about 15 percent of cases, is genetic but is most often caused by rubbing the eyes with the knuckles, rather than gentler fingertips.
“The constant pressure on the cornea leads to warpage,” Trattler said.
The 90-minute crosslinking treatment uses a combination of Riboflavin vitamin B2 drops applied and soaked into the cornea and UV light to strengthen the cornea, resulting in a more normal configuration. Patients might expect to feel scratchiness or sandiness for a little time, but over six months the condition progressively improves post-treatment, Trattler says.
The treatment is still investigational, which means it’s not covered by insurance, and costs range from $2,500 to $4,000 per eye. Trattler has performed the procedure on more than 250 patients at the center.
Results “have been quite dramatic for a lot of patients,” Trattler said.
Cataracts
Osvaldo Lom can often be found competing on the tennis courts at the Biltmore or Salvadore Park in Coral Gables, when he’s not water-skiing, windsurfing or diving.
“I do everything,” he said, even after cataract surgery.
The 61-year-old CPA is on a crowded playing field. Cataract surgery is the most frequently performed surgical procedure in the U.S., with more than 1.5 million procedures per year, according to the Department of Ophthalmology at Stanford University. About one-third of Americans will undergo this surgery at some point. By 2020, it is estimated that 30.1 million Americans will have had or will have a cataract, a bump from 20.5 million in 2000, according to the National Eye Institute’s Eye Diseases Prevalence Research Group.
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