April - June 2008 - LV Prasad Eye Institute

LVPEI, HyderabadJasti V Ramanamma Children’s Eye Care CentreOutpatient VisitsTotal 10,766Surgical ProceduresTotal 2,09080001200700060005000732810008001140950400060030002000100034384002000PayingNon-paying0PayingNon-payingRetinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) programBabies screened : 219 (120 in NICUs*, 99 at LVPEI)Laser sessions : 35 (4 in NICUs*)ROP surgeries : 12The low number of ROP surgeries is a measure of the success of our screening and laser program.*NICU – Neo-natal Intensive Care UnitHighlightThere has been a problem of babies with ROP from Kolkata being brought for treatment too late. The Institute had beentrying to address this issue by planning a good screening and referral program. Now a two-way referral system has beenset up for providing tertiary care to babies undergoing ROP management in Kolkata by Dr Abhijit Chatterjee at PriyamvadaBirla Eye Hospital. Three babies referred here in time underwent prompt vision restoration ROP surgery during the quarter.This called for tremendous team effort due to the challenges of transportation, scheduling surgery and ascertaining fitnessfor general anesthesia in these very fragile babies.Ocular Oncology ServiceIn 2004, Dr Parin Vakharia set up a Corpus Fund for treatment of children with eye cancer, in memory of late Olive Swoboda.The fund has enabled L V Prasad Eye Institute to provide quality tertiary cancer care to hundreds of children fromunderprivileged families free of charge. This quarter the total number of procedures performed on children withretinoblastoma was 457. Of these 213 children were treated absolutely free of charge. The procedures performed includedexamination under anesthesia, laser transpupillary thermotherapy and cryotherapy, as well as hospital-based chemotherapy,and surgical procedures like enucleation with orbital implant and plaque brachytherapy.6