“It has turned out that trusting Dr. Li was the best thing I ever did. I thank him from my heart for bringing me back to my normal life by giving me light…” said Mr. Wu while going through his last check-up before leaving the hospital.
It has turned out that trusting Dr. Li was the best thing I ever did. I thank him from my heart for bringing me back to my normal life by giving me light…” said Mr. Wu while going through his last check-up before leaving the hospital.
On 9th April, Dr. Li operated deep lamellar keratoplasty assisted by femtosecond laser in his right eye. Till the 5th day after the operation, his vision has been improved from 3/100 to 8/20, and will keep being improved with the healing of the incision.
Mr. Wu was quite confident about this operation, because three years ago, Dr. Li did the same operation for his left eye with satisfying recovery effect, which is also the reason he decided to come to Beijing during the breakout period of COVID-19.
Mr. Wu is 24 years old from Xi’an, who has been suffering from keratoconus for years.
3 years ago, one day there was a sudden vision loss with serious myopia and astigmatism in both eyes. Under this emergency, Mr. Wu visited the local hospital, where he was diagnosed as keratoconus. In the next few days, he visited many hospitals; some suggested him wear RGP, while other believed that he needed to get an operation to save his vision. Out of fear of surgery, Mr. Wu didn’t take that advice.
However, the vision of Mr. Wu kept getting worse to a near blind condition. This disease became a heavy burden in mind,“I’m only at my 20’s with a long life to live. I can not image what I would do with my life if I just went blind like this…”
Mr. Wu started to look up on the Internet about keratoconus, and found that it could lead to corneal perforation if getting serious. He had to get a corneal transplantation, “I searched up and found many hospitals who could do this operation. But because I was worried about the risk of rejection, I had to choose a trustworthy expert in this area. That’s why I found Dr. Li, an experienced, well-known domestic keratologist, who’s done over 6000 corneal transplantation surgeries. Also, Aier Eye Hospital Group has 10 eye banks, a cornea ophthalmologic group and Corneal Disease Research Group, which proved its resource and technical strength.
After series of complete, professional examinations, the keratoconus on his left eye was more serious than the right. Dr. Li explained the current condition and treatment plan, suggesting a deep lamellar keratoplasty assisted by femtosecond laser on the left eye, which had much less risk of rejection comparing to penetrating keratoplasty. Also, with the help of the femtosecond laser, which could assess the corneal accurately and match implant and bed more precisely. This method could minimize the post operative astigmatism and improve vision quality, which was safer and with greater effect. His right eye, instead, was still in the middle period of keratoconus. For now he could have corneal collagen cross-linking, and wear RGP after the operation.
After Dr. Li’s patient explanation and thoughtful encouragement, Mr. Wu put down his fear of surgery and made up his mind to accept the operation.
The operation was very smooth, and the visual acuity of the left eye was recovered very well as expected. During hospitalization, his vision recovered from 3/100 to 8/20. By the time of April 2020, the vision in the left eye had improved to 12/20, and 18/20 with glasses!
The post operative effect of the left eye far exceeded his original expectations! By contrast, Mr. Wu ’s right eye was not good. With the inconvenience and discomfort of wearing RGP, Mr. Wu has a thought: to have the same operation in the right eye.
Meanwhile, it was just during the special period for prevention and control of COVID-19. He was informed that he couldn’t have the surgery immediately until his 14-days quarantine was lifted.
It would cost a lot for quarantine in Beijing. After discussion with his family, Mr. Wu resolutely embarked on the path of seeking medical treatment. According to Beijing epidemic management measures, Mr. Wu was assigned to a centralized point for quarantine, and was received to lung CT and nucleic acid test.
After the quarantine being lifted, Mr. Wu completed the hospitalization procedures after a series of processes such as travel history and health information query, body temperature measurement,epidemic situation notification and commitment letter.
After full preparations before the surgery, Mr. Wu no longer feared this time and entered the operating room with confidence. He firmly believed that vision in his right eye would be restored like his left eye. Unsurprisingly, the operation went very well. The visual acuity in the right eye increased from 3/100 to 8/20 when he was discharged.
Professional Team
Led by Prof. Shaowei Li, a well-known corneal disease expert, the medical team of Ph.D. supervisors, doctors and chief physicians pays attention to clinical diagnosis and treatment, research institute training and scientific research.
Technology
A variety of difficult surgeries can be performed as following： penetrating corneal transplantation, corneal endothelial transplantation, lamellar corneal transplantation, deep lamellar corneal transplantation, posterior elastic corneal transplantation, corneal transplantation combined with cataract extraction plus intraocular lens implantation, corneal transplantation assistedby femtosecond laser, cross-linking surgery, etc.
Eye Bank
There are 10 AIER EyeBanks in AIER Eye Hospital and 29 Red Cross Cornea donation receiving stations nationwide，which is a nationwide network of cornea donation to provide timely and effective transplant surgical information and assistance for more blindness patients.
Scientific Research
Supported by AIER Eye Hospital Group, AIER Corneal Institute is committed to carry out clinical and basic research on corneal diseases, train different varieties of surgeries related to corneal diseases, introduce new technologies and solve difficult cases.
Charity
AIER Eye Hospital Group provides free treatment for impoverished families and patients who suffer from corneal blindness.