Military Officer - June 2006 - (Page 55)

Cataract surgery Dee Wayne Burrows, a retired Navy pilot, had his ﬁrst cataract procedure 15 years ago at the National Naval Medical Center. As was common then, his surgeon removed the cataract in one piece through an 11-millimeter incision in his eyeball, inserted an artiﬁcial lens, and closed the incision with sutures during a 45-minute procedure. Burrows remembers the experience as painless, and he left the hospital the same day with an eye patch. He could see just ﬁne the next day — certainly an improvement from years earlier, when cataract patients had to stay in the hospital for weeks while their incisions healed. Last year, at age 60, Burrows returned to Bethesda Naval to have the procedure on his left eye. But by then, the technology used to remove cataracts (which occur when the eye’s natural lens becomes cloudy) and the artiﬁcial lenses themselves had vastly improved. Burrows’ ophthalmologist, Dr. Kerry Hunt, anesthetized the eye and made an incision only 4 millimeters long. He then inserted a tiny probe that emitted high-frequency sound waves that broke up the cataract and then sucked up the fragments — a technique called phacoemulsiﬁcation. After that, he inserted a replacement lens that was custom-ﬁtted for Burrows’ eye. The natural pressure inside the eye closed the incision, obviating the need for stitches, and the procedure was over in 15 minutes. Burrows, who was awake throughout the surgery, noticed a difference in his vision right away. “It was like someone came into the room and turned on all the lights,” he says. He left the hospital in about an hour with a clear eye protector — no patch required. Today, Burrows has almost regained the near-perfect vision he once had. “I don’t wear glasses to drive or participate in one of my favorite pastimes — umpiring baseball,” he says. “Everything is brighter — I’d had no idea that everything was dark before.” Hunt says this is a common reaction. “People don’t realize how much vision they’re losing as their cataracts get worse,” he says. “When they have the procedure, they’re amazed at how much they get back.” Gallbladder removal Michael O’Connor never expected to ﬁnd himself facing emergency surgery, especially the day after completing a Navy physical ﬁtness test. Nevertheless, last October, sudden, severe abdominal pains caused the 40-year-old Navy captain to be rushed to Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he was diagnosed with gallstones — small, hard deposits of cholesterol and salts that had formed in his gallbladder, a pear-shaped organ below the liver that stores bile. To correct the problem, his gallbladder would have to be removed. It was the ﬁrst time O’Connor would have any kind of surgery, but he wasn’t unfamiliar with gallbladder removal, also called cholecystectomy. Gallstones ran in his family, and he had relatives who still bore large scars from the procedure. O’Connor, however, had a minimally invasive gallbladder surgery. The surgeon used a laparoscope (similar to the arthroscope used in knee surgery) to view the internal organs, and he removed the gallbladder through four small incisions, the longest of which was 3 ⁄ inches. Instead of stitches, a surgical superglue was 4 used to close the wounds. What surprised O’Connor most was the lack of pain after the 90-minute procedure. “I had some grogginess from the anesthesia, but apart from a few Tylenol, I didn’t need any pain medication,” he says. He left the hospital after a few days, and his incisions quickly healed as the surgical glue dissolved. Within about a week, O’Connor returned to work, even commuting back and forth on his bicycle. He had some difﬁculty adjusting to dietary changes; because he can no longer store bile, which helps digest fats, he’s had to cut down on fatty foods and include more ﬁber in his diet. But overall, he says the experience was a “walk in the park.” With all these advances, surgery should never be taken lightly. All procedures carry some risk, and experiences with postoperative pain vary widely. Klocek had some pain for a week after his GreenLight surgery; he says a friend who had the same procedure left the hospital the same day and was playing tennis within a week. If you’re having elective surgery, take a cue from Klocek and Dean — both men researched their procedures and knew exactly what they were getting into; Dean even checked the infection rates at various hospitals. Check your surgeon’s background and level of experience as well. Becoming an expert in minimally invasive techniques takes time and practice, and the more procedures your surgeon has done, the better your chances of a positive outcome. MO JUNE 2006 MILITARY OFFICER 55

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Military Officer - June 2006 Contents From the Editor President’s Page Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities MOAA Member Services Living Well 5 Foods for Life The Kindest Cut Winning the Battle Cover Story: Choppers Pages of History Information Exchange Advertising Index MOAA Scholarship Donors Member Books MOAA Calendar Sounding Taps Encore

Military Officer - June 2006

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