Preventing vision loss at the back of the eye

The Retina Vitreous Services at LVPEI Hyderabad’s Kallam Anji Reddy campus started as a small one-man effort by Dr Taraprasad Das in 1990 in an environment heavily tilted towards anterior segment diseases. The first decade saw the setting up of basic services, initiating research in common eye problems, building training programs and planning towards future growth.

The service was named Smt Kanuri Santhamma Retina Vitreous Centre in the year 1993 after a generous donation from Smt Santhamma’s family. Today, after almost two decades, it has grown into a vibrant, nationally and internationally recognized care provider in all areas of posterior segment disorders. This includes retinal diseases in the tiniest premature babies to the oldest geriatric patients, from healthy adults to diabetics and HIV patients. State-of-the-art diagnostic and surgical facilities complement the clinical evaluation and treatment of these difficult disorders, which include genetic, inflammatory, traumatic, neonatal, age-related, infectious and developmental disorders.

Ten full-time trained faculty across the three campuses (Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar and Visakhapatnam) function as a team to take care of posterior segment diseases besides conducting research, publishing in peer reviewed scientific journals and books, and participating in international clinical trials. The team is also enthusiastically involved in continuing medical education and public education programs, while training national and international fellows in the art and science of the care of these challenging diseases.

Here are case stories of two patients with retinal disease treated at the GMR Varalakshmi Campus, Visakhapatnam.

For Mrs Garkina Daniyamma, the world was going dark at only 40 years of age, when she began losing sight in both eyes. She was referred to L V Prasad Eye Institute, Visakhapatnam, where she was diagnosed with retinal detachment in both eyes, and choroidal detachment in the right eye. The right eye vision was limited to perception of hand movement, and the left eye had inaccurate projection of light rays.

The left eye was judged to have a poor prognosis, and was best left alone, but the retinal surgeon decided to fight for the right eye to the utmost. However, even with a very successful surgery, there were recurring episodes of detachment in the retina. The long-standing detachment was difficult to treat, but since this was Daniyamma’s only seeing eye, the surgeon did not give up.

Ultimately, after four surgeries over a period of seven months, she stabilized. Daniyamma was prescribed spectacles and referred to the Bob Ohlson Centre for Sight Enhancement for consultation. She was trained in money identification and cleaning foodgrains – both activities that were important in her daily life.

On her last follow-up visit in early 2009, Daniyamma shared her delight on having reclaimed her position as a homemaker, well in charge of her world!

Mr D Chinna Venkata Ramana Rao is an intelligent and active man; even at 75 years of age, his life’s main pleasure is reading. He was naturally worried when he suddenly lost vision in his left eye in January 2009, and even more so when an ophthalmologist told him that he would need to travel to Chennai for appropriate treatment. Instead, he came to LVPEI’s GMRV campus at Visakhapatnam.

The retina consultant diagnosed him with acute retinal necrosis in the left eye, a highly virulent infection of the retina by the Herpes Zoster virus. His vision was by then reduced to counting fingers close to his face. Ramana Rao underwent repeated injections of ganciclovir in the left eye. Along with the injections, he was treated with a finely judged combination of oral antiviral medication and steroids over the next two weeks.

On his follow-up visit in February 2009, the vision in his left eye had improved to 20/40. “I didn’t need to go to Chennai – the treatment was available right here in Visakhapatnam!” he exulted when he started seeing with the eye which was nearly blind a few weeks earlier.