Patients With Macular Degeneration Can Have Their Vision Restored With Telescopic Eye Implant at Ekol Hospitals

Patients With Macular Degeneration Can Have Their Vision Restored With Telescopic Eye Implant at Ekol Hospitals

For selected people with advanced macular degeneration in both eyes, one option to improve vision may be surgery to implant a telescopic lens in one eye. Ekol Hospital in Izmir, Turkey, now offers this revolutionary procedure to patients with end-stage age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most advanced form of the disease and a leading cause of blindness.

The Telescope Eye Implant is the only medical/surgical option available that restores a portion of vision lost to AMD.

"Macular degeneration can affect your quality of life, rendering you unable to perform many tasks, such as reading, driving and recognizing faces. Macular degeneration damages the retina and causes a blind spot in a central field of vision. The telescopic eye implant available at our hospital restores vision by projecting images onto an undamaged portion of the retina, which makes it possible for patients to see faces and objects located in front of them", explained Prof. Dr. Gunhan Erbakan, Senior Manager at Ekol Hospital. 

The telescopic lens, which looks like a tiny plastic tube, is equipped with lenses that magnify your field of vision. The telescopic lens implant may improve both distance and close-up vision.

Dry macular degeneration is a chronic disease which affects the eyes, causing blindness in the center of the field of vision. The disease is age-related and is caused by the deteriorating of the tissue on the inside of the back wall of the eyeball. Another form of macular degeneration is wet macular degeneration. This is caused by the leaking of blood from blood cells grown under the retina in the back of the eye.

"The Ekol  Hospital in Turkey offers comprehensive treatments and surgical procedures in order to restore patients’ vision. Their highly qualified medical specialists strive to ensure highest standards of client satisfaction using top notch equipment”, said Mr. Pramod Goel, CEO and Founder of PlacidWay, one of the leading medical travel providers in the US and around the world.

Although there is no cure for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the telescopic eye implant helps end-stage disease sufferers by implanting a microscopic telescope into the eye when the lens is removed. This takes the place of the individual's own lens and remains in the eye permanently. The procedure takes a little more than an hour, and once the patient has the implant, the telescope magnifies the images a patient sees and projects them. After surgery, patients undergo occupational therapy to help them get used to their new vision.

Candidates for the procedure include individuals with untreatable end-stage macular degeneration (dry form) who are 75 or older and whose disease is stable but severely impairs vision. Candidates must have adequate peripheral vision in the eye that will not receive the implant and have no other ocular diseases, such as glaucoma.

It sounds like science fiction: tiny telescopes being implanted into the eyes of humans to restore sight in those with AMD. But it’s actually happening in operating rooms of the Ekol Hospital in Izmir!

PlacidWay is a global medical tourism company that helps patients evaluate their options, providing helpful tools and details in order to make the best decision. Every patient needs to know the choices that best fit his/her needs in terms of budget, health conditions and destination. More than providing access to executive check-ups and treatments, we strongly believe in creating a customer-service oriented experience that is safe, affordable, high-quality and culturally unique to every medical traveller.

The revolutionary Telescopic Eye Implant is now within reach in Turkey. For more information about PlacidWay and the Ekol Hospital, do not hesitate to contact us!