[Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] Fw: BlindNews: An artist's vision: A new eye surgery technique allowedBetty Bollhorst to get back to work

Fri Apr 21 22:57:21 CDT 2006

Neat article.

Shelley L. Rhodes B.S. Ed, CTVI
and Judson, guiding golden
juddysbuddy at velocity.net
Guide Dogs For the Blind Inc.
Graduate Alumni Association Board
www.guidedogs.com

Dog ownership is like a rainbow.
 Puppies are the joy at one end.
 Old dogs are the treasure at the other.
Carolyn Alexander

----- Original Message -----
From: "BlindNews Mailing List" <BlindNews at GeoffAndWen.com>
To: <BlindNews at BlindProgramming.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 9:08 PM
Subject: BlindNews: An artist's vision: A new eye surgery technique
allowedBetty Bollhorst to get back to work

Herald & Review, Illinois
Wednesday, April 19, 2006

An artist's vision: A new eye surgery technique allowed Betty Bollhorst to
get back to work

By THERESA CHURCHILL - H&R Senior Writer

DECATUR - The deterioration in Betty Bollhorst's ceramic work paralleled her
health, with the eyes going first.

"Painting with black was the hardest," she said. "I had trouble doing the
pupils of their eyes because I couldn't see how much paint I had on my
brush."

A woman who does most of the chores around the Decatur home she shares with
her husband, Kenneth, because of his poor health, Bollhorst also couldn't
tell where she'd been while mowing the grass or read the clock during water
exercise classes at the Greater Decatur Y.

Unlike most patients, however, her vision did not improve significantly
after having cataracts removed in 2000 and 2001.

"On a humid day, it was still like trying to look through a piece of wax
paper," she said.

It turned out her vision problems were not caused solely by a clouding of
the eye's natural lens behind the pupil and iris, also known as a cataract.
Bollhorst, 67, also had Fuchs' dystrophy, or the gradual failure of
microscopic pumps at the back of each cornea - the clear layer on the front
of the eyeball - that kept it from becoming waterlogged.

Until recently, the only treatment for severe cases like hers was a complete
cornea transplant, surgery that carries higher risks of vision loss and
rejection by the body. Instead, she became one of the first people in
Central Illinois to undergo a partial cornea transplant, first on her right
eye in February 2005 and then on her left in January.

The risks were lower, the recovery time shorter (about two weeks) and the
results better, with her vision now at 20/50 in her right eye and 20/25 in
her left.

CAPTION: Betty Bollhorst's love of painting is back on track after a partial
corneal transplant in both eyes. Herald & Review/Kelly J. Huff

"I am so thrilled I can see again," Bollhorst said. "Everything is so clear
and bright now."

Her surgery, known medically as an endothelial keratoplasty, was performed
by Dr. James Lee, an ophthalmologist at the Springfield Clinic Eye Institute
who trained in the procedure at the University of Arizona five years ago.

Still considered investigational, endothelial keratoplasty is performed by
stripping the back layer of the cornea off like a piece of plastic wrap and
removing it through a tiny incision just outside the iris. Then another
small incision is made, through which donor tissue is inserted and tucked
into place.

The only sutures needed are one each to close the incisions, Lee said, and
those can be removed in a couple of months. This compares to multiple
sutures needed to hold an entire cornea down, stitches that must remain for
12 to 16 months and can distort the cornea's shape and the patient's vision.

"When you cut out the bad pumps from the inside, you are not making a large
opening that compromises the pressure in the eye and increases the risk of
hemorrhage," Lee said. "It's a closed, controlled system."

Plus, he said, the risk of rejection is much lower - about 5 percent
compared to 20 percent to 50 percent.

Lee performs partial cornea transplants manually, rather than using a laser
or automated blade, which keeps the cost down, but he said the technique is
still evolving.

In Bollhorst's case, for example, Lee removed some of the middle layer of
her right cornea along with the endothelial cells, fitting donor tissue into
the space like a puzzle piece, and made the incisions larger, taking four
sutures to close.

By the time he operated on her left eye, he was making smaller incisions,
stripping off only the back layer and sticking the donor tissue on top of
what remained.

Having begun performing partial cornea transplants in late 2004, Lee did
more than 50 of the surgeries last year and eight or nine just last month.

"I've been pretty impressed with the procedure," he said.

So is Bollhorst, who can now read her Family Handyman Magazine for ideas she
can use around the house and once again enjoy making creations for the
Bollhorst Ceramics business she has operated out of her basement for more
than 30 years.

"I'm really excited about a new technique I'm doing with decals," she said.
"Now all I have to worry about is the steadiness of my hand."

Theresa Churchill can be reached at tchurchill at herald-review.com or
421-7978.

http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2006/04/19/news/local_news/1014617.txt

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