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: