Child’s complex eye surgery successful at Nepal Eye Hospital

Kathmandu, January 26

A lens-sparing vitrectomy (LSV) has been successfully performed at Nepal Eye Hospital, Tripureshwor.
This is a first-of-its-kind surgery performed at the hospital. Such complex surgeries are rare in Nepal.

Due to retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) of the newborn, LSV is done on a condition of a blood clot in the eye resulting in obstruction to blood passage to the eye.
There was a compulsion to go to India for such surgery cases.

The successful performance of LSV surgery in the left eye of a newborn born, aged only 29 weeks, is a historic leap in eye treatment.

The newborn who was referred to the hospital underwent eye surgery on last December 26, Dr Priya Bajgain, who led the complex surgery, said, “This is the first time that LSV surgery was performed on a baby with such a delicate age at Nepal Eye Hospital. The baby was brought to the hospital for a follow-up last Wednesday. I found improvements in both the eyes.”

Under his leadership, the baby was treated with laser technology for ROP problems in the right eye. Dr Bajgain said, “After the successful treatment of the right eye with laser technology, the complicated surgery, LSV, was done in his left eye.”

Dr Bajgain was accompanied by pediatric anesthesiologist Shanta Sapkota. It took more than an hour for retinal specialist Bajgain to perform the LSV surgery on the baby. Newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Eye Hospital, Dharmaraj Gosain said that they have not charged any fee from the parents for the surgery and other treatment of the infant. “As per the policy of the Ministry of Health and Population, we are engaged in a campaign to make eye treatment services better,” he said.

In the coming days, we will adopt a policy to further expand the services of the hospital, he shared.
According to Santosh Poudel, medical records officer of the hospital, out of the 157,000 patients served by the hospital last year, 300 were children under 34 weeks of age.