Eye surgeons at Newcastle Hospitals are today (4 December) performing a live surgery stream to over 5,000 surgeons at an event in Italy.
The surgical team are demonstrating the most effective way to carry out reattaching the retina for patients using the latest technologies and techniques.
The Newcastle Hospitals vitreoretinal service carries out between 300 and 400 of these procedures each year – around 30 a month – using 3D visualisation to guide the operation, with new state-of-the-art equipment bringing real time sensing which means tiny adjustments are made during the operation to keep the eye stable.
A retina can detach itself without warning, or less commonly due to a trauma to the head. Without corrective treatment the patients can potentially go blind, the aim of the operation is to restore the vision and function of the eye.
Consultant ophthalmologist Sandro Di Simplicio Cherubini said the service, which performs around 7,000 cataracts operations and around 1,700 retina surgical procedures a year, has been on the pioneering edge of development in the last decade.
“It’s exciting to be asked to do a live stream of our operation for this Floretina event which is broadcast to around 5,000 surgeons from across the globe.
“We’re a pioneering service with many firsts in our adoption of new technologies and our highly specialist procedures for patients.”
They include:
- The first hospital in the UK to use 3D visualisation which significantly improves images of the eye seen down a digital microscope.
- The only trust in the country to perform fluorangiography -whichuses specialist equipment topinpoint areas of the retina in real time for patients with diabetes who require treatment. Previously it could only be done during an outpatient appointment which meant relying on a static image.
- Believed to be the first service to have created a completely carbon neutral cataracts treatment and care pathway.
