This Week: Josh’s Refractive Surgery

HOT TOPIC

Belkin Vision to Be Acquired by Alcon

Alcon has announced plans to acquire Belkin Vision, an Israel-based company known for its innovative Eagle Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty (SLT) device. The Eagle offers a significant and headline-grabbing advancement in non-contact glaucoma treatment, offering a new approach to managing this disease.

Belkin Vision’s Eagle has received FDA 510(k) clearance, marking it as a safe and effective tool for performing SLT, a form of laser treatment used to lower IOP in patients with glaucoma. The Eagle operates at a 532 nm wavelength and uses a Q-switched, frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser.

Belkin Vision

The Eagle also received CE Mark approval under Medical Device Regulation from its notified body DEKRA, making it the first automated, non-contact glaucoma laser treatment available in Europe.

My Two Cents

With Alcon acquiring Belkin Vision, I’m hoping this incredible device will make its way into the hands of more clinicians sooner. For those who don’t remember, I profiled the Eagle in an earlier edition of this newsletter. The machine performs an SLT almost automatically without any contact lenses. It’s an incredible leap forward in glaucoma treatment—especially as more and more states are allowing ODs to perform the procedure. Hey Alcon, if you’re reading this, the docs at Williamson Eye Center would love to take the Eagle for a test drive! ;)

OUTSIDE THE LANE

Woman Goes Blind in One Eye, Receives Lung Cancer Diagnosis

A young woman who lost vision in her left eye recently was diagnosed with lung cancer despite the lack of any other symptoms. Doctors at Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences in India said that “Despite widespread malignant involvement, the patient was completely asymptomatic and active except for visual disturbances.”

According to experts, although ocular metastasis of lung cancer is extremely rare, it can occur with tumors developing in the eyes in around 0.1% to 7% of metastatic lung cancer cases. This 32-year-old patient's imaging showed “a growth” in the right eye’s retina and “small growths” on her left eye. A chest x-ray revealed growths in her lower right lung, which ended up being cancerous, and additional testing revealed tumors across multiple organs. The woman was ultimately diagnosed with lung carcinoma with choroidal metastasis in both eyes.

My Two Cents

This is yet another arrow in the quiver when we state that the eyes are the window to your body and its health. I regularly let patients know that a comprehensive eye exam can detect signs of diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and other diseases. It sounds like we can add lung cancer to that roster as well.

CAN YOU RELATE

As a -6.00 myope who has been wearing contact lenses and glasses since I was 11, I’ve often contemplated refractive surgery as an option to relieve myself of the burden of these daily vision-correction options. However, as someone who adores contact lenses and heavily emphasizes specialty lenses and dry eye treatment in his clinic, I’ve never given LASIK/PRK serious thought, due to the possible side effects of dryness and ectasia. (This is despite the fact that I am highly confident that our clinic takes all necessary precautions to minimize these outcomes, and truthfully, I can’t remember the last patient whose ectasia or significant dry eye was caused by our clinic.)

One of the procedures that our refractive specialist, Blake Williamson, MD, has been performing at an extremely high volume has had such incredible outcomes, low recovery time, and 100% satisfaction that I have decided to sign up for the procedure myself. This Wednesday, May 15th, I’ll be having the EVO ICL (Staar Surgical) implanted in both of my eyes. For those unfamiliar, the EVO ICL is essentially a tiny contact lens implanted behind the iris and in front of the eye’s natural lens. It turns out that more than 3,000,000 of these minimally invasive procedures have taken place worldwide. Mine will be performed in our surgery center, and I will not be receiving general anesthesia—although most patients do opt for it.

If you want to watch the procedure, follow Williamson Eye Center on Facebook and Instagram. It should be livestreamed on one or both platforms.

Tune in next week to hear about my experience!

IMAGE OF THE WEEK

Type 1 macular telangiectasia.

Paul Hammond, OD, FAAO, @kmkoptometrypro

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.”

— Socrates