Dr. Kameen's Blog

I spent several days last week visiting the Dominican Republic, a truly lovely country. I was in Santo Domingo with a delightful local Ophthalmologist, Juan Batlle, M.D. and,together, we performed numerous eye surgeries on people from the impoverished surrounding area. The Dominican Republic is one of the poorer countries in that area, and borders Haiti. The towns people are often under-served when it comes  to routine eye care and many, even at a young age, have advanced cataracts. Juan and I performed numerous procedures called Phakic Intraocular lens surgeries, which are aimed at correcting highly nearsighted individuals. The immediate difference I noticed was that these patients were literally led into the operating room, as they could afford neither eyeglasses or contact lenses. Certainly makes you appreciate the care we have here in the U.S. After the procedure, when these same patients could sit up and see for the first time, it was difficult to hold back the tears.

In the United States, we perform a good number of ICL procedures, but typically, reserve this for patients with a very high nearsighted prescription, or patients who's corneas are too thin for a full correction with Laser Vision Correction (PRK or LASIK). You can read more on my website about the Phakic IOL (also called ICL for Intraocular Contact Lens) procedure.

While we are on the subject of eye surgery, June is "Cataract Awareness Month" and we are going all out to help people be made aware that, even in the U.S., cataracts are the number one cause of visual loss after the age of 55. I have been performing cataract surgery for 25 years, and never has it been more safe or more capable of satisfying various visual goals. Previously, cataract surgery with the insertion of an intraocular lens(IOL), left patients still needing bifocals to see their best at far and near. In recent years, however, "Advanced Technology IOL's" have been developed, which address nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, and even presbyopia, which is the loss of reading ability after age 40. The modern cataract procedure has always been an extremely safe procedure, but now a femtosecond laser is available to help make cataract surgery even safer and more accurate. We are also able to use all of our tools to aim for greater spectacle independence for all of our patients.

So, please know, that we at Kameen Eye Associates, are doing our utmost to stay on the leading edge of both Laser Vision Correction (Lasik and PRK), as well as refractive cataract surgery. I have made a personal commitment to keep this practice the most advanced cataract and Lasik practice in the Baltimore, Annapolis and greater Maryland area. Please come back to my blog for additional postings as I spend a good bit of time this summer spreading the word on the great procedures available.