Looking ahead

The coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions are still with us, but Hillel Yaffe Medical Center’s Ophthalmology Department was not giving up on holding professional peer in-service training, to hear updates regarding everything new and changing in the field of ophthalmology. At the conference, held in a partially frontal form (some of the audience were physically present, while others joined with Zoom), lectures were delivered about innovations in the field of glaucoma surgery, among others by Prof. Mansouri Kaweh from Switzerland, a world-renowned expert in glaucoma surgery, and Dr. Islam Al-Hashash, an intern in glaucoma in the Ophthalmology Department at Hillel Yaffe.

Also discussed at the conference, were surgeries based on a tiny implant, including use of extremely small implants, such as the XEN and iStent, which enable reducing intraocular pressure more safely and less invasively than traditional glaucoma surgery. These operations are carried out on a regular basis at Hillel Yaffe, and minimally invasive glaucoma surgery can now be combined with cataract removal surgery, thereby reducing the quantity of drugs which a patient needs to use at the same time.

The day ended with a study workshop during which various surgical techniques in the field of glaucoma and cataract surgery were practiced, including advanced lens suturing, using special and microscopic eye models.

The workshop was coordinated by Dr. Rana Hanna and Dr. Ori Scheyer, senior physicians in the department, and intern Dr. Yitzhak Hindi.

Director of the Ophthalmology Department at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Dr. Beatrice Tiosano, summarized: “We are at the forefront of world surgical technology. Undoubtedly our patients receive the most advanced and best treatment available today.”