e-book on improving efficiency of cataract surgery launched

AT a time when cataract has been identified as the most common cause of reversible blindness, an e-book focused on efficiency during cataract surgery  was launched on Wednesday, 20 April at the Ceylon Continental Hotel, Colombo.

The book gives in detail the cataract surgical steps which Dr. Shamintha Amaratunge, MBBS, MD (OPH), uses currently to improve efficiency in cataract surgery.

Titled ‘Beyond the threshold… Efficiency in Cataract Surgery,’ the book discusses knowledge and the techniques used by Dr. Amaratunge in improving the efficiency in cataract surgery which had been gained through persistent effort and professional experience. He has introduced 12 new techniques to improve the efficiency in cataract surgery.

The book emphasises how Dr. Amaratunge has disciplined himself during a surgery, how he has defined the tasks of the instruments beyond its main tasks and how he has manipulated the surgical steps to improve the efficiency without harming the outcome.

Minister of Health Maithripala Sirisena, Additional Secretary to the Health Ministry Dr. P.G. Maheepala, senior eye surgeons, doctors, private sector representatives and the media graced the occasion.

Dr. Amaratunge uses phaco surgery – described as “phaco emulsification and foldable intra ocular lens implantation” – the latest technique which made him efficient in time management during a cataract surgery with an average time of two minutes 20 seconds per patient.

Although it takes such a short time, he has been able to maintain quality and safety and also minimise the time wasted outside the eye during a surgery thereby making the surgery a compact job.

His profile includes a total of 45,000 surgeries including 35,000 of phaco emulsification and IOL implants from 2006 to 2010. He performs an average of 85-100 phaco emulsification surgeries per surgical list.

Last year he had done 12,611 phaco surgeries, of which over 2,200 had been performed at eye camps. He volunteers at many general medical and eye clinics and surgical camps held in rural areas and schools.

As for the book, he feels that the knowledge and the techniques he has discussed will be of much benefit to the established and experienced cataract surgeons.

He is of the view that efficiency is important in cataract surgery in the current context when an estimated 500,000 cataract patients are in the country. Among them around 150,000 are believed to be blind, the majority being due to cataracts.

According to the Health Ministry’s Vision 2020, every year 100,000 patients are adding up to this figure. The total number of cataract surgeries done per year is around 80,000. This can be improved through the development of infrastructure and by improving the efficiency of the surgeries with the available resources.

His aim is to contribute to this by improving efficiency in cataract surgery with the existing infrastructure.