Vision Centre
A new
vision
Gold Coast Bulletin
15/02/2008
Breakthrough technology, treatments and
surgical equipment are being used on the Gold Coast to combat
some of the most serious and complicated eye diseases such as
cataracts and macular degeneration.
Patients suffering with cataracts, a disease
which causes the eye lens to become opaque, are having both
near and distant sight returned to them without the need for
glasses with new artificial intraocular lens implants (IOLs),
which patients are regarding as miracle cures, thanks to new
technology being used at the Vision Centre in Southport.
Cataract surgeons at the vision centre, Dr
Roger Welch and Dr Andre Theron, are excited by the results,
which are turning around the lives of patients.
Dr Welch said while artificial intraocular
lenses had been used by surgeons for some years, new advanced
lenses enabled most people to see nearly everywhere.
Previously only monofocal artificial lenses
were available, providing patients with distance vision only
and leaving most with a need for reading glasses.
With the new generation multifocal lens
implants cataract patients who present with little or no vision
are able to see both near and distant objects clearly.
"Most patients achieve a level of vision
they haven't had for years, allowing them to resume lifestyle
activities they thought they had lost forever, " said Dr
Welch.
"Lens implant surgery is a comfortable
procedure with patients able to return home on the same
day."
The Vision Centre is only the second
ophthalmic day surgery in Australia to use the preloaded Staar
intraocular lens, which was developed in Switzerland and Japan
to enable more efficient implanting of artificial lenses.
It eliminates manual handling of the lens
implant, reducing surgery time and the risk of infection.
Vision Centre also offers the best available treatment for
macula degeneration, a group of degenerative eye diseases that
cause progressive loss of central vision, leaving only
peripheral or side vision intact. It is usually related to
ageing and most frequently affects people over 50.
Visudyne is a light activated drug that is
slowly infused through a vein in the arm.
Once in the bloodstream it travels to leaky
blood vessels under the macular in the very centre of the
retina.
A non- thermal, low intensity laser beam
then activities the drug, which seals the damaged area. Dr
Theron says Visudyne therapy has been shown to significantly
reduce the risk of severe vision loss and slow the progression
of macular degeneration.
The state of art Vision Centre Day Surgery,
at 95 Nerang Street in Southport (opposite the Gold Coast
Hospital), is equipped to provide a wide range of surgical and
the other eye treatments.

Note: the Doctor in the picture is actually
Dr Roger Welch, not Dr Andre Theron as stated next to the
photograph in the article above.
Dr Andre Theron appears in the newspaper
clipping below:

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