GS Eye Center - English and Mandarin versions

Dear friends,

After all these months of hard work, the English and Mandarin versions for GS Eye Center homepage are finally ready.  Please feel free to check out the information on http://www.gseyecenter.com/ and we look forward to receiving your feedback.

Sincerely,
GS Eye Center

Contribution back to the society

Nowadays we always ask what the society could do for them but have we stopped for a moment and thought about what we have done for this society? Of course giving and taking is an etiquette most people know but have we thought about giving more and taking less? Our ecosystem is a cycle that would be adequate for humans, plants, animals and the earth to sustain for a long, long time if we give as much as we take from the ecosystem. It is easily said than done but sometimes a little might mean nothing to us, yet meant a lot to others. We are now living on a land that our ancestors worked hard to provide and we also must not forget about them and their hardship. So what should we do to contribute back especially when everyone is busy earning money to sustain their own lifestyle?  Actually I think the best way is through volunteering as firstly, we learn not to think that every action we do will mean we will get something back, secondly, we actually learn to give completely and thirdly, we understand that if we manage our time efficiently, we could still spare time for others who need our aid.

Our clinic provides voluntary services like free eye check-up for the elderly in the elderly homes or local community centers and going to Vietnam to provide free cataract surgeries & eye check-up for the people living in the rural area every year.  This month we went to Yangjae Senior Welfare Center to provide free eye examination for the elderly living around the area.  The queue started way before we reached there and everything started as soon as we set up all the equipment.  At first our optometrist provided regular eye check-up to check their vision and lens condition. Most elderly had some vision problems like not being able to see anything within a feet distance, not wearing glasses even though they couldn’t see well and presbyopia. One of the grannies was very adorable as her left eye condition was better than her right eye and she was trying to use her left eye to read even though we covered her left eye.  I felt sad for some grandpas as they couldn’t even see how many fingers the optometrist had placed in front of them. 

After the regular eye examination, Dr. Kim examined their eye condition for any possible diseases or problems and he advised the patients how to take care of their eyes, especially for those with slight cloudy lens condition by providing eye drops so that the lens condition would not get worse.  For some with healthy lens, eye drops were also provided to make sure that the elderly could maintain their eye condition. For some with serious cataract conditions, Dr. Kim advised them to get an operation to replace the lens as soon as possible so that the condition did not get worse. 

Finally, we managed to see all the patients within 3 mad-hours rush and the center in-charge was really grateful that we made the visit. She told us that most elderly had difficulty going to places and by bringing our equipment to the center, the patients didn’t have to go far for treatment. However it did not apply to certain examinations, as some require the patients to visit the hospital for detailed examination. It is a pity and I hope as the technology advances, more and more equipment will be made smaller and more compact to accommodate the elderly needs.  Well, a little means so much to these elderly and let’s try to make this place a more beautiful place to live in!

Cataract Procedure

Operating on any part of the eyeball requires lots of patient and skillful hands as our eyeball is really small (an average diameter of 24mm) and of course, it is one of the most delicate part of our body.  During LASIK/LASEK surgery, top corneal layer is scraped off, laser is used and then, cornea is covered with contact lenses for recovery, but for cataract surgery, the surgeon needs to create an incision on the cornea, remove the cataract, insert a new lens and then stitch up the incision.

So how does the cataract surgery go? The procedure will vary a little depending on the clinic and the machine used. After the doctor confirmed that your eyes have cataract, appointment for cataract removal will be set up and one eye is usually operated on the first day and the other on the second day. The doctor will also check with you about your medical history to make sure that the drugs you are currently taking will not interfere with the medication prescribed. Normally, you will be asked to stop taking any medication for cardiovascular diseases and eye drops will be prescribed for about 4 days to a week before the surgery. 

On the surgery day, the doctor would exam the infected eye again before the surgery and the consultant will explain the steps of taking the prescribed eye drops after the surgery.  After that, you will be brought into the surgery wearing a gown and cap and the nurse will ask you to sit on a reclining chair. With you comfortably laid down, the nurse will then disinfect your eye area including the forehead, drop some local anesthesia eye drops, cover your head and eye with a sterile covering, use a speculum to hold your eye in place and instruct you not to move your eye too much during operation. When this is done, the surgeon will come in to get ready for the surgery. 

Once the surgeon is ready, the surgeon will create 2 small incisions on your cornea using an operating microscope and inject a gel-like substance, viscoelastic, into your anterior chamber to help stabilize your eye pressure during the surgery. Next, the surgeon will insert forceps through one of the incisions to remove the top thin layer of the cataract and then by using Infiniti Vision system, the surgeon will use the Infiniti handpiece to slowly break up the cloudy lens into smaller pieces (phacofracture) and remove them through suction (less than 5 minutes) including making sure that the cataract on the edge is removed.   

Incisions are made.

Forceps used to remove top layer.

Infinite handpiece used to remove cataract.

New IOL lens inserted. 

After the cataract is removed thoroughly, a high-quality intraocular lens is inserted into your eye to replace the original lens and incision is sutured.  The type of lens inserted will depend on your eye’s needs. At present you could have lens that is for both cataract and presbyopia inserted. A protective shield will then be placed on your eye and you would be taken to the recovery area to rest for about 30 minutes.  Before you leave, the surgeon will check on your eye again and another appointment will be made for you to return for check-up on the next day. It is a painless surgery and the recovery period will take about a week with you being able to return to work on the next day.  


Just out of curiosity, I checked on a few videos on traditional cataract procedure and you could watch them on the following sites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X_Q3lrw5JA (watch from the middle of film - couching procedure)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeBbKS0GoQs (watch from the middle of film)