Novel treatment for high astigmatism

CHENNAI: Dr Agarwal’s Eye Hospital on Thursday announced that it has come up with an efficient yet cost-effective new technique to treat extreme astigmatism- a refractive disorder of the eye. The new technique, which involves reducing the diameter of the pupils to the size of a pinhole, is called “Pinhole Pupilloplasty.”

This is the first time such a procedure has been carried-out globally, Amar Agarwal, Chairman of Agarwal Group of Eye Hospitals, told reporters. “The novel technique we have come up with yields high results where patients who were nearly blind, got back their vision,” he said adding that the hospital has improved the vision of over 10 people with high astigmatism. The surgery costs about `20,000, he claimed.

Astigmatism is a type of refractive error in which the eye does not focus light evenly on the retina. This results in the distorted or blurred vision at all distances. However, when the error is too high, people are nearly blinded. “We suture (stitch) the pupil of the person, reducing it to the size of a pinhole. This will prevent refractive errors and patients will have a clear vision within four days of the surgery,” he claimed.

While patients with mild astigmatism can wear glasses, when patients have a double-digit power, eye-glasses are not very useful. Patients with blinding levels of astigmatism, usually need a corneal transplant, which may scar the cornea and even cause loss of vision.In Pinhole Pupilloplasty, the diaphragm of the eye is decreased to about 1.5 mm, improving the quality and range of focus.