Donation of phaco instruments and training to African Eye Units

[angeletti paolo]

Dear All,

 

here you have the translation of my last article on OFTALMOLOGIA DOMANI. In less than five months the magazine has already received the offer of a couple of donations. One from ALCON to the COM of Kinshasa and the second one from an Italian ophthalmologist to the Eye Dept. of the Agogo Presbyterian Hospital, Ghana.

I sincrely hope you will also help the initiative "A phaco for Africa".

Kind regards

 

Dr. Paolo Angeletti

[Marcelo]

Paolo congratulations !

Kind news !

Best regards

Marcelo 

Uruguay 

Enviado desde mi iPhone

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<THE NEW AFRICAN OPHTHALMOLOGISTS-x[1].pdf>

<i nuovi oculisti africani.pdf>

[Stan]

Paolo,

Thanks for sending this to the cataract discussion group!

I'm reading over this and wondering if you have had phaco surgeons who have responded to help train some of these doctors who are asking for additional phaco training.  

Also, wondering if any have expressed interest in support for their SICS programs in any fashion?  I'm guessing that SICS is probably more important to them than phaco if they are seeing really dense cataracts in needy population areas.

Anyhow, I'm thinking that we could definitely find some phaco trainers utilizing our ASCRS connections.  We have quite a database of volunteer ophthalmologists through Global Sight.

Do all of these doctors speak French?  I'm thinking that French speaking ophthalmologists who know phaco may be the best thing for us to recruit for helping in this situation.

Stan

[angeletti paolo]

Hi Stan,

 

thanks for answering.

1. All the African colleagues are Francophone (two of them are also Anglophone)

2. All of them practice 100% SICS+IOL

3. Some ask for cataract-glaucoma sets (also 2nd hand), also for SICS

4. One of them ask for a portable microscope for outreach and another a yag laser for pediatric surgery

5. Phaco technique is advisable (Richard Hardi) in 80% of cataract cases in rural Africa. If SICS is the present, Paco is the future and African Doctors look for it

6.To start phaco they need:

- A good microscope

- A phaco instrument with disposables

- Training. Local training. They will provide free transport (from and to the airport), accomodation and food to the trainers

7. The magazine OFTALMOLOGIA DOMANI has, so far, received two donation of phaco instruments and two Italian trainers are presently available

8. The initiative "A phaco for Africa" will, probably, receive more offers of donation

9. Let us keep in touch, it will be great if you all could help us (with instruments and trainers) in the future

 

Paolo

De : angeletti paolo <angelet...@yahoo.fr>
À : "bian...@fastwebnet.it" <bian...@fastwebnet.it>
Envoyé le : Jeudi 31 octobre 2013 21h56
Objet : Tr : Fwd: [Global cataract discussion 76] Donation of phaco instruments and training to African Eye Units

----- Mail transféré -----
De : Stan <sple...@globalsight.org>
À : "global-...@googlegroups.com" <global-...@googlegroups.com>
Envoyé le : Jeudi 31 octobre 2013 21h50
Objet : Fwd: [Global cataract discussion 76] Donation of phaco instruments and training to African Eye Units

Paolo,

Thanks for sending this to the cataract discussion group!

I&apos;m reading over this and wondering if you have had phaco surgeons who have responded to help train some of these doctors who are asking for additional phaco training.  

Also, wondering if any have expressed interest in support for their SICS programs in any fashion?  I&apos;m guessing that SICS is probably more important to them than phaco if they are seeing really dense cataracts in needy population areas.

Anyhow, I&apos;m thinking that we could definitely find some phaco trainers utilizing our ASCRS connections.  We have quite a database of volunteer ophthalmologists through Global Sight.

Do all of these doctors speak French?  I&apos;m thinking that French speaking ophthalmologists who know phaco may be the best thing for us to recruit for helping in this situation.

Stan

On Thu, Oct 31, 2013 at 2:48 PM, Marcelo <mgall...@gmail.com> wrote:

Paolo congratulations !

Kind news !

Best regards

Marcelo 

Uruguay 

Enviado desde mi iPhone

El 31/10/2013, a las 13:50, angeletti paolo <angelet...@yahoo.fr> escribió:

Dear All,

 

here you have the translation of my last article on OFTALMOLOGIA DOMANI. In less than five months the magazine has already received the offer of a couple of donations. One from ALCON to the COM of Kinshasa and the second one from an Italian ophthalmologist to the Eye Dept. of the Agogo Presbyterian Hospital, Ghana.

I sincrely hope you will also help the initiative "A phaco for Africa".

Kind regards

 

Dr. Paolo Angeletti

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You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Global Cataract Discussion Group" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to global-catara...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to global-...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/global-cataract.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

<THE NEW AFRICAN OPHTHALMOLOGISTS-x[1].pdf>

<i nuovi oculisti africani.pdf>

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[Dan Gradin]

Here are my comments from 11 years in Nairobi, Kenya:

1. Almost all of my Kenyan colleagues wanted to learn phaco.  Patients can be billed at a higher rate for phaco, although there is very little difference between a well-performed SICS and phaco at one year after surgery.

2. Phaco is only sensible if the backlog of dense cataracts is reduced to the point where there is enough extra time to operate on patients with less severe cataracts.  In our area of East Africa (Nairobi), I would have estimated that less than 20% of cataract patients who presented to our clinic were suitable for phaco.  Consequently, surgeons should have a very low complication rate in their SICS cases in order to transition to phaco, so that patients don't wait for their cataract to become dense.

3. It wasn't until my 11th year at Kikuyu Hospital that I did more phaco cases than SICS, but only because we were seeing fewer white cataracts.  Perhaps there is a similar trend in other areas.  I think phaco training is definitely the way of the future in Africa.

4. Good biometry (A-scan and keratometry) is also essential to take full advantage of phaco, but refractive prediction errors are still more common with denser cataracts, whether operated by phaco or SICS.  Patients can be unhappy if they pay extra for surgery, but have reduced vision because of unexpected myopia.

Good luck with your phaco training efforts.

Regards to all,

Dan Gradin, MD

Comprehensive Ophthalmologist

Portland, OR, USA

 

    

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Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 21:48:48 +0000
From: angelet...@yahoo.fr
Subject: Re: Fwd: [Global cataract discussion 77] Donation of phaco instruments and training to African Eye Units
To: global-...@googlegroups.com; nicola...@yahoo.it; gdim...@aliceposta.it