Chennai: In what seemed to be a complicated case, the surgeons at Dr Agarwal’s Eye Hospital have performed ‘pinhole pupilloplasty’ surgery for two patients – J Baskaran and Sadhath Ali – who were admitted with high astigmatism condition.
Astigmatism is a case where the shape of the cornea blocks the light rays from refracting, thus leading to blurry vision. The condition can occur right from the birth or can be due to injury.
Surgeons opine that a normal eye can manage the condition of about three-four dioptres. However, in the case of the two patients, they were diagnosed of high astigmatism and the power was recoded to be more than 20 diopters.
“Owing to the complicated condition, surgery cannot be facilitated and hence we decided to operate and fix the vision,’ said Dr Agarwal’s Group of Eye Hospital’s chairman Dr Amar Agarwal.
“The surgery lasted for about 10 minutes where the size of the pupil was brought down to about 1.5 mm, making it a pinhole by stitching it. The patients were able to regain the vision very soon. There are various methodologies for treating a damaged cornea, but we decided to do this as it reduces complications and is cost-effective. In addition, this specific surgery is also approved by major medical community in the world,” Dr Amar Agarwal said.
It is said that the patients underwent cataract surgery before undergoing pinhole pupilloplasty. On asking if any other surgery can be performed post this technique, Dr Agarwal’s Group of Eye Hospital’s executive director Dr Ashvin Agarwal told News Today, ‘Though the eyes have been operated post this technique, generally it is not advised to do so.”