2018 has been a spectacular year !

One of the most memorable highlights was spending a week in Svay Rieng (3 hours away from Phnom Penh) looking after the needy and making underprivileged patients see again.

As an eye surgeon, I was honored to participate in a Cataract Charity Camp in Cambodia, operating on dense sight-threatening cataracts. There was a wide range of cases and a rich spectrum of complexities, including small pupils, wobbly lenses and deep set eyes. In addition to the language barrier!

Using a variety of surgical methods including small incision phacoemulsification and large incision extracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE), with many requiring Vision Blue to visualize the cataract better. Finally intraocular lenses (IOLs) were carefully implanted to improve patients' vision.

A touching case was of a Buddhist monk who had such poor vision due to cataracts he no longer identified his fellow monk's faces and had trouble navigating. After the surgery, the next morning he was already able to read text ! His eyes glowed with joy and the feeling was amazing. Utterly glad to be in a position to help.

At the end of a rewarding week, surgical outcomes have been terrific, and I look forward to my next Charity trip.

Seasons greetings,
Dr Leonard Yuen
MBBS (London, UK), MRCOphth(UK), MPH (Harvard), FRCSED, FHKAM, FCOphth