22 October 2008
Patients at the Bristol Eye Hospital, run by the University
Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, are the first in the West
Country to benefit from a new sutureless eye surgery technique.
Trialled earlier in the year, around 80 operations for
conditions such as retinal detachments, macular holes, diabetic eye
disease and uveitis, have now been carried out using the new
technique.
Sutureless eye surgery does away with the need for stitches in
the eye, considerably reducing patient discomfort, improving
post-operative recovery times and reducing the risk of infection.
It also reduces the time needed to carry out the procedure by
around 20 minutes, allowing surgeons to carry out more
operations.
The technique uses much smaller, disposable instruments which
can be inserted into the patients eye through a tiny cannula.
When it is removed from the eye, the wound is so small that it
seals itself.
Mr Richard Haynes, Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at the Bristol
Eye Hospital, explains: Conventional eye operations leave an
average of eight stitches in the patients eye. This can make
them sore and it can take more than four weeks for the stitches to
dissolve. Also, there is more of an infection risk as well as
discomfort and inflammation.
Sutureless surgery is a major advance. The wounds left by this
technique are so small and heal so quickly that it is difficult to
see them with a microscope even the next day.
The new procedure is much less invasive and it is less of a
trauma particularly for those patients who are more sensitive such
as children, although all patients who go through it will
appreciate the more comfortable outcome and the much quicker
recovery.
