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Archive for December, 2009

Blind Woman Sees With ‘Tooth-in-Eye’ Surgery

Doctors in Florida Restore Sharron Kay Thornton’s Vision by Implanting a Tooth in Her Eye

By LAUREN COX
ABC News Medical Unit

Sept. 17, 2009—

Forget about an eye for an eye — doctors in Florida have taken a
blind
woman’s tooth, and used it to help restore her vision.

A team of specialists at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine announced Wednesday that they are
the first surgeons in the United States
to restore a person’s sight by using a tooth. The procedure is formally called modified osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (or MOOKP).

Sharron “Kay” Thornton, 60,
went blind
nine years ago from a rare disorder called Stevens-Johnson syndrome. The disorder left the surface of her eyes so severely scarred she was legally blind.
But doctors determined the inside of her eyes were still functional enough that she might one day see with the help of MOOKP.

“This is a patient where the surface of the eye is totally damaged — no wetness, no tears,” said Dr. Victor L. Perez, the ophthalmologist at the Bascom
Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami who operated on Thornton. “So we kind of recreate the environment of the mouth in the eye.”

The three-phase operation started with University of Miami dentist, Dr. Yoh Sawatari, who removed a tooth from Thornton’s mouth and prepared an implant
of her own dental tissue for her
most severely damaged eye.
The tissue would be used to make a new cornea to replace the damaged one.

Doctors then removed a section of Thornton’s cheek that would become the soft, mucus tissue around her pupil. Finally, Perez and his team implanted the
modified tooth — which had a hole drilled through the center — to support a prosthetic lens.

“We use that tooth as a platform to put the optical cylinder into the eye,” explained Perez.

Perez said doctors often use less risky and less invasive techniques to replace corneas, but the damage from Thornton’s Stevens-Johnson syndrome ruled those
out.

Using a tooth might sound strange, but it also offers an advantage. Because doctors used Thornton’s own cheek and tooth tissue she faces less risk that
her immune system will attack the tooth and reject the transplant. Patients getting a cornea transplant from a deceased donor, on the other hand, face
chances that their immune system will reject the new tissue.

This Labor Day, Thornton was able
to take off the bandages
and she immediately saw the light.

Regaining Her Vision With Tooth in Eye Surgery

“From the first day, she’s been able to see 20/70,” said Perez. “She cannot drive legally (yet), but she can see her hands, see TV, see the sky, see the
clouds.”

At the moment, Thornton has nothing covering the cheek tissue on her eye, an aesthetic drawback MOOKP patients must face.

“Her eye looks different but, the goal is once she heals more we can put on a cosmetic eye shield,” said Perez.

The technique was developed in Italy in the early 1960s, but the original procedure has been modified over the years by doctors in Europe. Hundreds of people
in Japan, England and Italy have regained vision through the technique, but most eye specialists in the U.S. don’t foresee MOOKP catching on in America.

“It’s a complicated and rare procedure that a few people use in desperate situations [and] some patients benefit when the alternative is blindness,” said
Dr. Stanley Chang, an ophthalmologist at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

Why the Tooth and Eye Procedure Is Rare

While OOKP is used more often in Europe, doctors U.S. typically choose a less tedious technique called the Boston Keratoprosthesis, which is similar to
MOOKP but uses a prosthetic cornea instead of one grown from dental tissue and does not require cheek tissue to surround the implant.

The Boston technique, experts say, can save patients time and give them a more natural looking eye.

Doctors may use MOOKP for some uncommon situations — including people with Stevens-Johnson syndrome, or who were chemical burn victims — but not always.

“These conditions, although rare or uncommon, are still important because the patients may have little or no vision, and because there have not been very
effective treatments to restore their vision,” said Dr. James Chodosh, a cornea specialist at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

However, Chodosh added, “The [MOOKP] procedure is unlikely to be very commonly used because of the difficulty, length, and invasiveness of the surgery and
the cosmetic appearance after surgery.”

Rare Procedures to Reverse Blindness Still Have Benefits

Dr. Uyen Tran, associate professor of ophthalmology at the Vanderbilt Eye Institute, agrees that “these types of patients are not common” and says that
“we probably see about 20 cases a year at our center.”

Yet, while the number of patients for MOOKP may never reach the number of patients getting the Boston Keratoprosthesis, Perez said he hopes to perform more
of these procedures for those in need.

“Absolutely there are a lot of patients like her (Thornton), and also patients with chemical burns& we also want to work with the Department of Defense
to help with soldiers who are scarred,” said Perez.

One of our members, Tracey Frost, is in the Medical field.  She has done medical transcription for a number of years now, and she has had lots of experience with the medical transcription field, as you will see in her story which has been posted on the following web site.

http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=7&TopicID=267&SubTopicID=83&DocumentID=4888

As you have seen from the story from the link above, the medical transcription field is quite demanding and at times, quite intensive with little, or no breaks.  This is one of those jobs that you really have to love doing if you do decide to do it.

Some people would think that medical transcriptionists have gone nuts sitting at their computers all day long, but that’s what this job requires.  It requires dedication, focus and the willingness to help others in times of need.

Tracy frost is one of those people who loves helping others.  She is an outstanding BOSS member.  She has achieved a lot through her career as a medical transcriptionist and she continues to grow by being a valuable part of the BOSS program.  If you are blind and visually impaired, then you may want to join Tracy in making your dreams come true by becoming a part of our program.

Through our program, Tracy Frost has learned a great deal about marketing online, and she is on her way to developing her own medical site, wich will feature many of the things that she holds dear, and that will help other people in many different ways.

Besides being a medical transcriptionist, Tracy Frost is also a patient advocate which means that she is the link between you, the doctor and the medical facility.  All of this is part of her willingness to help others.  As a BOSS member, tracy has been instrumental in providing excellent ideas that will help the other members of the program.  She is definitely a very active part of the Blind Online Success System.  That is why she was added to the Blind Persons Achieving Success Section of this blog.

Congratulations to Tracy Frost for her outstanding achievements and commitment to the BOSS program

Amazon working to make the bestselling Kindle also a breakthrough device for
the blind

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Kindle, the #1 bestselling product across all of
Amazon, has enabled many vision-impaired readers to enjoy books more easily
than
before, and has also helped dyslexic readers and those with learning
disabilities improve their reading skills. Vision impaired customers benefit
from
Kindle’s ability to change the font size – easily making any book a large
print edition. Dyslexic readers benefit from being able to listen with
Kindle’s
text-to-speech technology while simultaneously reading along with the
synchronized text. Today, Amazon announced that it is working on a new set
of features
that will make Kindle even better for these readers as well as a meaningful
breakthrough device for the blind.

"Kindle is for anyone who loves to read-in fact, we’ve heard from thousands
of vision-impaired customers and customers with learning disabilities over
the
past two years who have been helped tremendously by Kindle," said Ian Freed,
Vice President, Amazon Kindle. "With some key modifications, we believe
Kindle
can be a breakthrough device for the blind, and the team is excited about
making these enhancements."

Below are examples of emails sent to the Kindle team over the past two years
about the significance of these features:

"The other day I took my visually impaired friend to the eye doctor. I just
happened to take my Kindle out of my purse to show her the birthday gift I
had
received. Amazingly, she was able to read on it. How exciting; she had not
been able to read books for many years."

"I’ve always loved to read, but the last year or so vision problems have
hampered my reading. Reading small print was extremely difficult and caused
eye
strain. Fortunately, a dear friend gifted me with my Kindle 2 on my birthday
in September. Since that time, my Kindle has not left my side."

"I have an 11 year old daughter with cerebral palsy. She has very poor
vision and cannot turn pages in a book, so the kindle text to speech is a
blessing
for her. She loves books and will listen for hours!"

"I am an ophthalmologist specializing in rehabilitation of the visually
impaired. I have found the Kindle DX to be of tremendous value to my
patients. A
few modifications could increase its effectiveness."

[From teacher of students with learning disabilities] "One of my students
brought his mom’s Kindle to class this week and gave a little show and tell
for
two different classes. He is certainly a hard worker, but reading is not an
easy skill for him. He reports that the lack of back-lighting, the ability
to change font size and the ‘read-to’ features have been very helpful -
already he feels he has made great progress! The Kindle has really grabbed
the
attention of many of my students who have typically been turned off by
reading assignments."

To make Kindle more useful for the blind, the Kindle team is currently
working on an audible menuing system so blind and vision-impaired readers
can easily
navigate to books unassisted, in addition to listening to books as they can
already do today with Read To Me. In addition, a new super size font will be
added to Kindle, increasing the number of font sizes from six to seven. This
seventh font size will be twice the height and width of the current largest
font. These new features are scheduled for release by the summer of 2010.