Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Surgery boost for eye patients
A complex sight-saving operation is now being carried out at Kent and Canterbury Hospital – saving patients a trip to London.
The intricate surgery is a type of corneal transplant that is less invasive than previous techniques, involving the replacement of damaged tissue with donor tissue one hundreth of a millimetre thick.
Before the changes, patients in east Kent had been forced to travel to Moorfields specialist eye hospital in the capital to have the surgery, called Descemet’s membrane endothelial keratoplasty.
The first patient to benefit from the operation at the K&C is 50-year-old admin assistant Debbie Elliott, whose vision first started to deteriorate 12 years ago.
Her condition led to her eventually losing sight in one eye, but the operation has restored it.
She said. “Everyday objects are much easier to see – everything is brighter and clearer than it used to be. It’s like being able to suddenly see in HD and 3D.”
Mrs Elliott is now waiting for an operation on her other eye, which surgeons are also confident will be a success.
Cornea consultant Nick Kopsachilis said: “The operation is delicate, and technically more demanding than the standard procedure, and that’s why patients in east Kent used to have to travel to London. So it’s particularly exciting that we can now perform the procedure here in Canterbury.
“Patient recovery rates are excellent, and within a week, most patients should have normal vision.”
To find out more about organ donation, visit www.organdonation.nhs.uk.