Seeing is believing

MANILA, Philippines - It is inevitable that vision is compromised by age. You can’t turn back the hands of time but as the years go by, you find ways to cope with sight problems. Once you reach 40, you experience difficulty reading at your usual distance. And as you grow older, you develop cataracts that cloud the lens, interfering with light transmission through the eye.

If your goal is to restore vision to perfect or near perfect, meaning approximating zero grade, a person with a cataract condition undergoes a procedure to replace the damaged lens.

Recently, I was diagnosed as being afflicted with an early case of cataracts in the center of both my eyes, compounding my problems in nearsightedness and reading. For more than 30 years, I’ve been using monofocal contact lenses to address my 700 grade in both eyes. As reading became difficult, I switched to bifocal contact lenses, the alternative to progressive eyeglasses.

When I visited ophthalmologist Dr. Arnold Salud for an eye checkup a few months ago, he saw the onset of macular degeneration in my left eye, a hereditary condition that blocks center vision and retains only peripheral sight. A blood vessel behind my left eye was about to rupture. If left unattended, it would’ve leaked blood into my eye and caused irreversible damage. Luckily, Dr. Salud spotted it early and used a cold laser to neutralize the vein.

After the procedure, I asked Dr. Salud if he could suggest a permanent solution to my distance and reading difficulties without eyeglasses or contact lenses. Since I had cataracts in progress, he recommended implants with the bifocal foldable intraocular lens made of acrylic material.

Lens implants were introduced in 1949 and today, over 30 million procedures have been done with a success rate of 99.9 percent. Through the years, the quality of the lens has improved dramatically. Only six months ago, Alcon came out with a bifocal lens that is graded for reading.

Dr. Salud, a retina specialist, referred me to his colleague Dr. Richard Kho for the lens implants at the American Eye Center in Shangri-La Mall in Mandaluyong.

I was attended to by Dr. Kho, Dr. Salud and anesthesiologist Dr. Arlene Hernandez. To prepare me for the 20-minute procedure, I chose a sedative by injection over eye-drop anesthesia. The painless, bloodless operation went smoothly. Microscopic incisions were made in two points of the eye to insert the foldable lens. I walked out of the operating room with my eyes in perfect grade (or what Dr. Kho calls the “bulls-eye”) and a DVD copy of the entire surgery.

The remarkable advancement in eye treatment is the availability of the bifocal lens with the option of two distances for reading, allowing the user to determine a preferred comfort level. The Acrysof Restor aspheric lens is entrusted only to less than 100 of the country’s 1,500 ophthalmologists.

With the Acrysof Restor lens, I’m able to wake up in the morning with unimpaired vision. The days of waking up to grab my eyeglasses or put on my contact lenses are gone. I’m now also able to read without difficulty and without eyeglasses or contact lenses and tackle my cue cards on TV and in hosting events. It’s a dream come true.

The lens implant costs about P100,000 a pair compared to the rate of $5,000 an eye in the US. What’s more, there are no maintenance costs. The lens lasts forever and my eyesight will remain as it is now until I die. It’s no wonder the center is attracting more and more patients who would otherwise go overseas for treatment.

Aside from lens implants, the center offers Lasik or refractive surgery. The procedure takes about five minutes each eye and uses a cold laser to reshape the cornea into a dome if it is steep or flat to create a zero-grade condition. Lasik takes away the need for eyeglasses or contact lenses.

Dr. Jack Arroyo, who heads the partnership that manages the center, said his group has performed Lasik and lens implants on over 30,000 eyes at a rate of 4,000 eyes a year. Lasik is done on Mondays and Fridays, and lens implants on Tuesdays and Thursdays. About 150 patients visit the center every day and a staff of seven opticians, six nurses and six receptionists ensure a steady flow of care through six test stations with minimal waiting time.

A second branch of the center, which was established in 1995, will be opened soon at Greenbelt 5 in a 530-square meter space with state-of-the-art equipment.

“Doctors run our center so we never compromise on what we invest in equipment and technology,” said Dr. Arroyo. “We have a foundation that sources assistance for our needy patients and at least 15 percent of our cases are free. We’ve got over P100 million worth of equipment with our Excimer laser machine as the most expensive, costing $500,000. We’re driven by excellence and good results. We were the first in Asia to perform Lasik procedures and we are recognized all over the world for our work.”

The American Eye Center is a proud testament that in the Philippines, the practice of ophthalmology is at par or even higher than the loftiest standards in the world.