Outpatient Surgery Magazine

OR Excellence Award Winners - September 2017 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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ing a video game," says Chirag Shah, MD, MPH, a retina specialist at Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston (Mass.), as he describes tracing the tiny vapor clouds with the laser's aiming beam before pulling the trigger to blast them into oblivion. "Obviously, the stakes are much higher, but it's truly an enjoyable proce- dure to perform." Floaters occur when vitre- ous gel separates from the retina to form large, circular shaped spots in the visual field. Dr. Shah co-authored a recent pilot study that was the first randomized control trial to assess the efficacy and safety of using a nano-pulsed YAG laser to eliminate Weiss ring floaters in the vitreous gel. In the study, 36 patients treated with the YAG laser experi- enced, on average, a 53% improvement in their symptoms. "But there was a broad range, meaning some patients weren't satisfied with the procedure," says Dr. Shah. Still, there was a clinically and statistically significant difference in floater reduction between patients who under- went the laser treatment, and those who did not. Dr. Shah was encouraged by the study's findings, which, he says, demonstrate the promise of YAG laser vitreolysis. "Choos-ing patients who have reasonable expectations increases post-op satisfaction with 1 2 4 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 • DO NO HARM Subthreshold micropulse lasers limit the amount of heat delivered to retinal tissue and eliminate nearly all of the risk asso- ciated with delicate eye procedures. Peter Karth, MD, MBA

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