Four-year-old Chennai girl’s vision restored in rare surgery

According to Dr Agarwal, it was the first time in the world that tissue or fibrin glue (composed of fibrinogen and thrombin extracted from human blood) was used for an IOL implant. This could end the need for painful suturing in different kinds of eye surgeries, including refractive surgeries, he said.

While fibrin glue has been used for cataract operations and surgeries in other fields of medicine, including urology and cardiology, this is the first time it was used for an IOL implant, said the surgeon.

Dr Agarwal added that using sutures to fix an IOL does not work as well since the lens shakes whenever a patient jumps or moves around too quickly. The fibrin glue, on the other hand, keeps the lens firmly in place and is very suitable particularly for active children. It was also found that patients developed problems in the case of permanent sutures several years later, he said. In Anandhi’s case too, an earlier surgery using sutures did not work as the cornea had been severely damaged.

Three weeks ago, opthalmologists tried the IOL implant using the fibrin glue and it worked. The procedure lasted about 30 minutes and it took Anandhi about three weeks to recover. “She can play and do all normal activities. Her vision too is very good. She has no problem at all,” said Dr Agarwal.

The technique has also been used on a few other patients, including a 50-year-old who suffered a ‘fist injury’. The results had been moderate to good, he said.

The surgery using fibrin glue would cost about Rs 20,000. But for Anandhi, whose parents hail from Sirumadurai village near Villupuram in Tamil Nadu and work as daily wage labourers, the surgery was done for free. Said Anandhi’s mother Avaranjam Chinnathambi: “We had given up hope that Anandhi would get back her vision. But now she can see everything.”