Tag: medical concierge

There are a number of treatments available for Keratoconus, including glasses, contacts, corneal implants and corneal transplants, depending on the stage and severity of your condition.

However, one verry innovative and highly effective treatment for Keratoconus is Corneal Collagen Cross-Linking. This treatment may be able to stop your vision from worsening, and has even been shown to improve vision in some people.

The full name of the procedure is Corneal Collagen Cross-Linking with Riboflavin, also called CXL for short. It is used to strengthen the cornea in people with Keratoconus. In doing so, Corneal Cross-Linking can stop Keratoconus from worsening. It can also help flatten the central cornea in about 50% of patients, who often experience better vision as a result.

The procedure is relatively simple and highly effective. It’s also very safe, and complications are extremely unlikely.

What is Keratoconus?

Keratoconus is a hereditary condition affecting the cornea (the transparent window at the front of the eye).

Keratoconus occurs as a change within the structure of the cornea making it weaker and thinner, resulting in a ‘cone shaped’ forward bulge. It leads to myopia (short sight) and, if the steepening is uneven, also astigmatism. With Keratoconus, visual distortion can become difficult to correct with spectacles, although contact lenses (usually rigid) can provide more functional visual performance.

At first, the protrusion occurs in the inferior parts (lower half) but later on it also affects the central part of the cornea.

The Procedure

Corneal Cross Linking is recommended for patients whose corneal scans show evidence of worsening Keratoconus, or those judged to be at especially high risk of worsening Keratoconus. As cross-linking naturally increases with age, the progress of Keratoconus usually stops by the mid-30s, so is not normally required for older patients.

Cross linking is currently the only available treatment which appears to stop the worsening of Keratoconus. Clinical trials based on outcomes 1 year after cross-linking show success in the halting of Keratoconus in more than 90% of treated eyes, with more than 45% of eyes also gaining an improvement in corneal shape. A separate study over a 5 year period showed a similar success rate in halting the progress of Keratoconus. Visual improvement after treatment occurs in approximately 50% of cases. However, after treatment you will still need to wear spectacles or contact lenses.

During the Cross Linking treatment our surgeons employ a combination of Riboflavin (Vitamin B) drops and ultra violet light that reacts with the collagen fibers in the cornea, strengthening them by creating more ‘cross-linking’ among them – and mimicking the natural corneal stiffening which occurs with age. The resulting increased strength of the cornea inhibits the progression of Keratoconus. The procedure is usually pain-free.

Corneal Cross Linking will not reverse Keratoconus but in the majority of cases prevents the condition from worsening, and will, in some cases, achieve a visual improvement.

Imagine not having to experience life from behind lenses. Imagine waking up in the morning, and starting your day without wrestling with contact lenses or hunting for your glasses. Imagine being able to wear prescription free sunglasses without having to fit them over your spectacles. These scenarios are all possible through the modern medical marvel of laser eye surgery.

The world of laser eye surgery is attractive to many patients, providing clarity, convenience, and freedom from glasses or contacts. But like any surgery, not every procedure is right for every patient. There are three main corrective surgeries: LASIK, LASEK, and PRK. All three of these procedures are designed to reshape your cornea wih the use of the Excimer Laser. But all three of them vary quite a bit in terms of method.

What is Excimer Laser surgery?

Excimer laser surgery involves using a laser, which is computer controlled to reshape the cornea. The surgery is designed to treat imperfect vision or in other words, refractive errors.

Until recently only myopia (short sight) and mild astigmatism (uneven shaped cornea, which is more steeply curved in one direction than the other) could be treated. However, thanks to improved laser technology, hyperopia (long sight) and more acute astigmatisms are now routinely treated.

Our online consultants will advise if Excimer Laser surgery is suitable for you. Excimer Laser treatments may not be possible for patients with diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis or lupus (a disease affecting the immune system).

The Procedure

The Excimer Laser is a ‘cool’ type of laser. It doesn’t burn tissue, but vaporises small amounts of the cornea every time a beam of the laser is pulsed onto the surface of the eye. The diameter of the laser beam and the number of pulses that are directed onto the cornea are carefully controlled using computer technology, so that the surface of the cornea is reshaped.

The procedure is performed using local anaesthetic eye drops and takes around 5 minutes per eye. However, the time taken for the reshaping of the cornea with the excimer laser is usually less than a minute.

Different sight problems require different treatments. For example:

• Myopia – the central apex or peak of the cornea must be flattened to reduce the degree of short-sightedness.
• Long-sightedness – the central apex of the cornea needs to be made steeper. This is done by applying the excimer laser to the edge of the cornea.
• Astigmatism – this occurs when the cornea is more curved in one meridian (or axis) than the other so the laser is applied to make the cornea more evenly curved.

After a successful procedure, the cornea is able to focus light rays directly onto the retina at the back of the eye, rather than in front of or behind the retina.

A good hair transplant result is undetectable not only to another viewer but even to another hair-transplant surgeon. There are many reasons for a hair transplant to look unnatural and require a corrective procedure. Sometimes, it can be due to the use of old technology, progression of hair loss, or poor technique. For example, large round “plugs”, scalp reductions, and/or flaps were the procedure of choice in the past but with the progression of hair loss their results became unnatural. Sometimes the transplanted area looks unnatural and sometimes the donor area is left with wide scars and at times unnatural hair patterns that may be difficult to correct. Even though plugs and large reductions may not be performed anymore, the results of hair transplants can still look unnatural.

Common mistakes associated with hair transplants

With hair restoration becoming more and more popular, many surgeons and medical practices seek ways to capitalize on this revenue stream – even ones who may not have the experience or skills required to successfully perform hair transplants. In other cases, hair restoration clinics may perform hair transplants using a rotating staff of surgeons and support teams, rather than using one surgical team to perform the surgery from start to finish. Common mistakes include unskilled removal of hair follicles from the donor site, which can result in scarring or uneven patches, and unnatural or unsuitable placement of the hair grafts. In some cases, grafts are placed so poorly that new hair growth does not occur.

When it comes to hair restoration surgery, the best results are achieved when a highly skilled and experienced hair restoration surgeon performs the surgery from start to finish. This helps prevent errors when the hair grafts are harvested from the donor site and when they are transplanted to their new location. Unfortunately, some surgeries are still done with little experience and poor technical expertise. The result of an hair transplant through these clinics can thus be very disappointing. Therefore, it is always important to not only focus on the price, but also on the skills and expertise of the medical team. Natural and aesthetically pleasing outcome depends upon a surgeon’s ability to reproduce the patient’s natural hairline.

The Procedure

Thanks to many years of experience performing hair transplants, our surgeons are able to easily identify what has gone wrong during a primary hair transplant. They then create a plan to correct these mistakes so they can craft a more natural outcome for the patient. Once the errors have been identified and a plan created, the corrective hair transplant is performed similarly to any other hair transplant performed by our surgeons.

• The first step involves harvesting hair grafts from the donor site. One ofour surgeons will take special care to preserve the integrity of the scalp in the donor area and, if necessary, will work to address any scarring that occurred during the primary hair transplant. Harvesting is usually done using Follicular Unit Excision technique. The final approach used will depend upon the patient’s unique needs and the condition of the donor site.
• Next the hair grafts are carefully prepared for transplantation.
• Finally the hair grafts are individually placed in the recipient site, with special attention given to the angle of placement, density, pattern and hairline shape.

Our surgeons and their respective medical teams manage the entire process from start to finish, helping to ensure a more consistent, natural result.