Article on Ocular trauma conference at Doha in Qatar tribune

Experts discuss ocular trauma treatment MARIA ELIZA FONTANILLA

DOHA EXPERTS from the United States, Europe and the Middle East discussed the increasing rate of ocular trauma among the young and middle-aged population, at the second Qatar Ophthalmology Conference, hosted by Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), which concluded on Saturday.

Ocular trauma or eye injury is one of the most common causes of visual disability in the age group of six and 35 years.

In her welcome speech, Dr Fatima al Mansouri, chairperson of the conference and head of ophthalmology department at HMC, explained the reason for the them of the conference.

She said: “About half a million post-ocular-trauma blindness cases takes place worldwide.

More importantly, 90 percent of these cases occur due to exposure to risks that could have been controlled with simple and effective occupational safety procedures, proper health education or driving precautions.

“What makes this health problem more devastating is that it affects the young and middle age groups, which are the most productive age segments in any community.” She spoke of the need for effective management procedures to prevent complications.

“When the rate of ocular trauma increases without any effective controlling measures, ocular disability rates increase, imposing a burden on individuals and communities alike,” she said.

Dr Szilard Kiss, assistant professor of ophthalmology and director of clinical research at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City, talked about high resolution optical coherence tomography – general principles and application to eyes following trauma, and retinal surgery in post traumatic eye with poor vision.

Speaking to mediapersons, Dr Kiss said that surgery of eyes with poor vision is very important and beneficial.

“There is benefit in undergoing a surgery and gaining the vision back after the trauma.

Even if a patient has no light perception, about 20 percent of patients may regain useful vision from an injured eye.

We can rehabilitate a good percentage of these eyes.

Hope is never lost even if the eye looks very bad and the vision is very poor.” He explained the principle of surgery through a balloon: “Think of the eye as a balloon and the balloon bursts.

Three things occur: there will be a cut in the eye, the eye is going to be malformed and some of the parts inside the eye come out.

Initially, we have to put everything back and reform the shape of the eye.

Final vision rehabilitation is carried out through second and third surgery.

We rehabilitate the eye as much as we can to maximise the visual potential,” he said.

Dr Fathy el Sayyad of Misr University for Science and Technology in Cairo, Egypt said trauma was a leading cause of secondary glaucoma and blindness,.

Prof Mostafa Nabih of Cairo University made a presentation on primary repair and management of traumatic lens damage, and implantation of iris prosthesis lens.

Other international speakers included Dr Cesare Forlini (Italy), Dr Sundaram Natarajan (India) and Dr Khalid al Sabti (Kuwait).

Local speakers were Dr Omar al Qahtani, Dr Badria al Malki, and Dr Osman Mohammed.

Article on Ocular trauma Conference at Doha in the Peninsula

By Fazeena Saleem

DOHA: Advanced medical expertise and technology is available in Qatar to handle Ocular Trauma, while more attention should be paid to prevent eye injuries among children and construction workers, say experts.

The Ophthalmology Department at the Hamad Medical Cooperation (HMC) is equipped and the surgeons are skilled to meet the dramatic rise in the number of eye injuries suffered by children and young adults in Qatar, said Dr Szilard Kiss, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of Clinical Research, Weill Cornell Medical College.

“It is completely equipped; the equipment is as good as we have in New York and some times even better. The surgeons possess top knowledge and the techniques they use are equal to any other place in the world,” he said on the sidelines of the 2nd Qatari Ophthalmology conference.

This three-day conference emphasized to create public awareness on the measures and tools required to prevent eye injuries at construction sites, schools and at the work place.

“It can give hope to patients who had no hope after any eye injury. What, the doctors and audience will take out of this conference is about undergoing a surgery and getting the vision back,” said Dr Kiss, who is also a visiting surgeon at the Ophthalmology Department, HMC.

The conference saw many presentations and lectures from international eye experts from different parts of the world including USA, Europe, Middle East, India and GCC in addition to the local speakers from the HMC. The Ophthalmology conference had dedicated sessions each day, which dealt at length on the various issues related with ocular trauma and how best to prevent it.

“We should aim at prevention from injuries. We have several deceases to tackle. In case if we can prevent injuries the Ophthalmologist can spend more time on other diseases,” said, Dr S. Natrajan, Chairman, Academic research Committee, All India Ophthalmological Society.

“Children should have adult’s supervision; usually parents leave children with maids or at the play schools. Even at play schools if there is an adult supervision injuries could be prevented,” he said.

Sports injuries and work place injuries occur more because of carelessness and not following the proper safety measures.

“For workers the norms should be followed. Where ever there is a risk, the protection measures are important. Many accidents happen when they are lazy for few minutes,” said Dr Natrajan, who is looking for a clinical and expertise exchange programme.

Immediately after an injury the eye will be malformed. This will be addressed on early stage, to reform the shape of the eye. And often the next is rehabilitation carried out at second and third surgery, to maximise the visual potential, says experts.

However, patients in the Middle East mostly don’t do follow up treatment said Dr Farthy Elsayyad, IRCS, Misiri University for Science and Technology, Cairo Egypt. Only less than five percent of the patients take follow up treatment after an eye injury said Dr Fathy, while sating the real statistics of Ocular Trauma in the Middle East is unaware.

Article on Ocular Trauma Conference at Doha in Daily Gulf Times

Ocular trauma can be treated, says expert

By Noimot Olayiwola

People suffering from ocular trauma have hopes of regaining their vision even after several surgeries, a clinical researcher said yesterday.
“They might not regain the same level of vision they had before the trauma but potentials for visual recovery are there through many interventions available now,” Weill Cornell Medical Centre Clinical Research director Dr Sziland Kiss said.
He was speaking to the Gulf Times on the sidelines of the Second Qatar Ophthalmology Conference on Ocular Trauma, which concluded yesterday.
The focus of the conference was on prevention and treatment of ocular trauma as many children and young adults in Qatar and around the world suffer from eye injuries.
In the last four years, Qatar has seen a huge increase in serious eye injuries suffered by young people. The Hamad Medical Corporation’s ophthalmologic emergency receives and treats more than 50 cases of ocular injuries every day.
“Ocular trauma is a growing problem among people within the working age bracket and the highest incidences occur among people in the construction sector,” Kiss said.
However, he said people can also suffer trauma to the eyes in the home setting.
“When something strikes the eye or it goes into the eye causing damage or bleeding, that is ocular trauma. The first thing that comes to mind after a trauma is to put the eye together for repair,” he said.
Dr Kiss added that the repair of an eye can be likened to the repairing of a punctured balloon.
“Just think of a balloon that got shrunk when it is punched, the same thing applies to an eye and what to do is to sew it back into shape. Then after two-three weeks you can do a procedure called pars plana vitrectomy,” he said.
“Fortunately, Qatar has most of the advanced technologies to take care of patients in terms of repairing their eyes.”
Dr Kiss occasionally attends to patients, most of them diabetics, at the Hamad Hospital in co-operation with the Cornell Medical College.
He plans to collaborate soon with the Qatar Foundation on conducting research on diabetes.
Speaking at the inaugural session, the ophthalmology department head Dr Fatima al-Mansouri said that annually about half a million post-ocular trauma blindness occurs worldwide.
“Ninety percent of these cases occurred due to causes that were preventable and exposure to risks that could have been controlled with simple and effective occupational safety procedures, proper health education or driving precautions,” she said.
Dr al-Mansouri said effective management protocols to maintain complications are among measures required to meet the growing problem.
She said when the rate of ocular trauma increases without any effective controlling measures, ocular disability rate also increases imposing its negative burden on individuals and communities alike.

Dr.S.Natarajan's article in Jade Magazine

Memorable Trip to Berhampore, West Bengal

19 Nov 2010 Memorable Trip to Kolkata

I finished rotary trust meeting and left at 6.05, via Dharavi, due to severe traffic jam, I took detour thro sion dharavi from T junction thro LBS marg, spoke to vinod Mehta at 7.20 from kurla. He had already boarded. At 7.55 we reached kalina flyover. Still traffic jam was severe. Spoke to vinod Mehta , the counter were closed. Took a uturn below kalina flyover and decided to attend Jaideep wedding reception at kohinoor, catering college, Prabhadevi.

Attended wedding reception, changed ticket to friday morning 6.35 am. Got up at 4 am. Took bath, boarded flt, landed at 9.15. Was feeling Feverish. Dr.Sukanya Mitra came to pick me up with Sultan driver in Tata Sumo. Half way thro took crocin from Sukanya. She was discussing several things about my achievement, later touched several of my personal tragedy, my hardships in sankara nethralaya, How I was and am blue eyed boy of dr.SSB, even today.Had tea at Krishna Nagar. In this journey, I narrated several personal incidents, she was impressed and told me to write a book like Bob Asher in AAO this time. Reached Berhampore at 2.30, had lunch, took combiflam, did live surgery using Constellation, an eye post cat with IOL done previous day with Hyphaema, sub conj haem, vit haem with rheg rd.
Performed 23 g vit with pfcl with fge with endo laser with pfcl air exchange, then C 3 F 8 gas exchange.
Everybody appreciated.

It was nice to see my own fellows managing VR dept in Susrut Kolkatta by Aniruddha Maiti and Berhampore Susrut by Anshuman Mukherjee.

Later went to dinner met my other alumni soumen mandal, Debapriya Chatterjee,.
I also met SN alumni ashis bhattacharya, swati, bhunia, tushar sinha, partha biswas, etc.
Went to sleep at 12 mid night. Got up at 6 am , left Berhampore at 7 am with vinod mehta in tata sumo with sultan driver to catch flight from Kolkatta at 2 pm. On the way we had tea at Krishna Nagar. After some time there was diversion into a smaller road due to naka bhandi. I was discussing lot of spiritual things and shared about my life to vinod. I showed my YOU can do it presentation in lap top. He was impressed, he wanted a copy. I will send this and aaj savere cds.

To our surprise, suddently running Tata Sumo stopped in this small village at 10.15 am. Sultan tried his best engine did not start. We collected few volunteers, pushed the car several times, it did not start, Then we decided to off load our luggage into a three wheel cycle rickshaw with no top, we three, including driver went in this for three km. In between cycle chain got slipped, but adjusted and Reached Ranaghat, hired maruti omni. The whole journey was beautiful, I have photos and videos. Later reached Airport at 1 pm took flight at 2 pm and wrote this in air.

All this we did for what, all for commitment to teaching ophthalmology. So many friends question, why we have to do this, that is what we want to convey through this beautiful journey of life.

During the open cycle luggage rickshaw, vinod was testing, why not you tell your status and your famous name to him, at that moment in remote corner of India who knows us, that is what I was mentioning to vinod about Rajanikant and Ramana Maharishi about their philosophy, who am I. The answer was here. I told him there is no head weight , I enjoy moment to moment.
Hence I decided to pen it down.


Dr. S.Natarajan
Chairman & Manging Director

Realization of Mahaswami's Dream - Shri Uttara Chidambaram Nataraja Mandir

World Diabetes Day - 14th November 2010

World Diabetes Day is the primary global awareness campaign of the diabetes mellitus and is held on November 14 of each year. It was introduced in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization in response to the alarming rise of diabetes around the world. World Diabetes Day is a campaign that features a new theme chosen by the International Diabetes Federation each year to address issues facing the global diabetes community. Each year, World Diabetes Day is centered on a theme related to diabetes. Topics covered have included diabetes and human rights, diabetes and lifestyle, diabetes and obesity, diabetes in the disadvantaged and the vulnerable, and diabetes in children and adolescents. For 2009–2013, the theme is Diabetes Education and Prevention. And the 2010 slogan was Let us take control of it……now.

Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital & its Aditya Jyot Institute of Optometry observed World Diabetes Day in a magnificent manner. Many activities were organized. The World Diabetes Day logo is the blue circle - the global symbol for diabetes which was developed as part of the Unite for Diabetes awareness campaign. Police Headquarters at Colaba is one of the Mumbai’s ionic landmark & Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital building were lit blue on the eve of World Diabetes Day on 14^th November 2010. The Diabetes blue fortnight makes India a part of Global Movement. Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital is celebrating Diabetes fortnight from 14^th Nov to 30^th Nov 2010. Eye & Diabetes screening will be done at subsidized rates.

Aditya Jyot Foundation for twinkling little eyes is charitable trust not-for-profit body, with out-reach programs aiming to redress the suffering of low income groups, marginalized population living in rural and urban slums and tribal areas in our state through free eye camps and free eye treatment. The exemption under section 80G of IT Act is given. It operates at Dharavi. Massive Eye Checkup & Diabetes Checkup camp was organized at Dharavi by Aditya Jyot Foundation for Twinkling Little Eyes. Nearly 100 people were benefitted. The community camps have actually raised the awareness among public & many were surprised to know that they were diabetic. 

The CME for young & budding Ophthalmologists & medical professionals was organized by Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital, Aditya Jyot Foundation for twinkling little eyes in association with KEM Hospital. 128 professionals participated with experts like Dr. S. Natarajan who has authority in Diabetic Retinopathy & Dr. Arjun Ahuja Head of Ophthalmology Department Seth G. S. Medical College & KEM Hospital providing update on Diabetes & eye Morbidities. The CME was aimed to provide needed skills and update to young professionals to tackle this challenge that the diabetes is posing in our country.

AJEH building & police head quarters lit in blue on accounts of World Diabetes day

CME on account of World Diabetes Day at KEM Hospital