Conference on retinal surgery inaugurated

India is expected to have a large diabetic population of about seven crore by 2025. The progression and severity of diabetic retinopathy is directly related to the duration of diabetes and early medical intervention is necessary to prevent visual impairment, Governor Banwarilal Purohit said here on Sunday.

While speaking at the 9th edition of RETICON, an annual conference on retina surgery, he said the number of eye doctors in the country definitely needs to increase. “The population of the blind in India is estimated to rise to 1.5 crore by 2020. There are only about 15,000 ophthalmologists in India who are registered with the All India Ophthalmic Society. It gives us a ratio of about 1 ophthalmologist for about a lakh people,” he said.

There is a need to encourage faster and precision-based systems of medical treatment, he added. “Robotic eye surgery is one such example which is being increasingly adopted to bring in greater precision and speed in surgical procedures related to the eye,” he said.

The Governor also presented a gold medal to Sunir J Garg, professor of Ophthalmology, Thomas Jefferson University.

Amar Agrawal of Dr. Agrawal’s Eye Hospitals said, “Diseases of the retina have had low priority in blindness prevention programmes in developing nations. These diseases are responsible for 4.7% of all cases of blindness in India and are expected to become more common in future. With rapid diagnostic, medical and surgical advances in managing retinal diseases, treatment is becoming more affordable.”
Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/india-needs-more-eye-doctors/article26906320.ece