Leonardo da Vinci once wrote, “The eye is the window of the human body through which it feels its way and enjoys the beauty of the world. Owing to the eye the soul is content to stay in its bodily prison, for without it such bodily prison is torture.”
For Dr. Ahmed Al-Ghoul, this quote is not just a nice thing to tweet out. It is the inspiration behind a lifetime’s work in perfecting and advancing the art of eye care and surgery. Dr. Al-Ghoul is a leading cataract and corneal surgeon in Calgary that works with the innermost intricacies of eyes day in and day out. He brought several ophthalmic innovations to Calgary such as Corneal Cross Linking, DSAEK, DALK, and the Boston Keratoprosthesis (aka “the artificial cornea transplant”).
Speaking of innovations, “A lot has changed in our field over the last 30 years. We continue to improve our surgical outcomes by relying more on innovative technologies. For example, in the field of anterior segment surgery, lasers are leading the way in perfecting our surgeries and reducing our complications,” says Dr. Al-Ghoul.
The most common eye surgery in fact, cataract surgery, is now incorporating laser technology to make it completely bladeless. “The lasers being used in cataract surgery now perform corneal incisions, open the capsular bag, and break up the cataract. This makes the procedure entirely bladeless and significantly eases cataract removal by the surgeon,” says Dr. Al-Ghoul.
The laser use in cataract surgery according to Dr. Al-Ghoul is standardizing surgery to a great extent and adding an extra level of control. He equates the use of lasers in cataract surgery to transitioning a car driver from a manual transmission to an automatic transmission. The car hides away the details of gear shifting, but the driver still needs to be in tune with the road.
“Surgery is still an art form, whether through lasers or blades. At the end of the day you’re not dealing with inanimate objects. Patients move, the eyes move. Complications can happen and the surgeon needs to have the skills to deal with that,” adds Dr. Al-Ghoul.
Things get more interesting however with the more complicated procedures, such as corneal transplants.
“The most difficult procedure I perform is called DALK, where we take out 530 microns of the patient’s cornea and leave only the inner 15 micron layer to accept a corneal transplant from another person. Separating the tissue while preserving the patient’s inner layer of the eye takes a lot of time and technical expertise. However it is by far one of the most rewarding procedures to perform,” says Dr. Al-Ghoul.
Technology in eye surgery is evolving fast. What was difficult or impossible to do in the past is becoming easier to perform now. Some of the up and coming advancements in Dr. Al-Ghoul’s field include stem cell therapy to cultivate tissue from the patient’s own eyes for transplantation.
Dr. Al-Ghoul points out however, that it can take time for new technologies to become a standard of care in Ophthalmology; “While stem cell transplantation gathers a lot of buzz in the medical community and in the media, many things are still needed before it becomes an accepted standard of care”.
“We can be certain however that the future is promising great outcomes for our patients and it is absolutely exciting to be a part of this great field in medicine” says Dr. Al-Ghoul.
Leonardo would approve.
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What’s Up Doc? is a weekly column covering the most interesting doctors and health researchers in Calgary. If you are working on something that is changing healthcare, we’d like to hear about it. Send us a tweet at @snap_dx or email hisham@snapdx.co.
Hisham Al-Shurafa is a healthcare entrepreneur and co-founder of SnapDx.He is also co-founder and chairman of Startup Calgary.
Thanks to Dr. Aravind Ganesh for reviewing drafts of this article.
