| St. Mary’s Eye Hospital is the second or the
third biggest hospital in Korea. It is established
in 1988 located at Haeundae, Busan. To improve
the surroundings for medical treatment, we
newly built a medical center which is 3683
㎡ in size with 2 basements and 9 floors and
made a medical system which connects internal
medicine, dental center, dermatology center
and otorhinolaryngology so that they can collaborate
with each other and give general medical treatment
for clients. In addition, we remodeled the
main building, so patients can get treatment
in comfortable, convenient environment all
the time.
As of 2008, 10 medical specialists and
4 interns who specialized in different
fields are working for our hospital. Our
hospital is fitting to be called ‘a hospital
specializing in Ophthalmology’ because
we can treat and operate for all the eye
problems such as cataracts, glaucoma,
retina problems, eye cosmetic surgery,
strabismus, etc. We performed 2889 surgical
operations for cataracts, and this figure
is the second biggest in Korea, according
to National Heath Insurance Cooperation.
It is noteworthy that the number of the
operation in our hospital exceeded that
of the foremost university hospitals in
Seoul. The hospital director Lee, Gyeong-heon
had performed surgery for cataracts by
using Phacoemulsification before 1998
when our hospital was opened. He is such
an outstanding physician for cataract
treatment, and he himself held a medical
conference of the Academy of Cataract
and Refractive Surgery three times in
1990, 1992, and 1995 to make Phacoemulsification
common. In addition, he is regarded as
a pioneer in the field of operations to
correct nearsightedness because he performed
PRK in 1991, LASIC in1995, and ICL(Implantable
Contact Lens) surgery in 1997. Furthermore,
St. Mary’s Eye Hospital does justice to
its name, since every year more than 5000
operations for cataracts, glaucoma, eye
cosmetic surgery, and strabismus(including
an average of 650 operations for retina
problems per year) are performed.
St. Mary’s Eye Hospital has a global network
with foreign hospitals, and it makes our
hospital much more competitive. Connected
with Clyton Eye Center in the U.S., Yoshida
Eye Hospital in Japan, and Qingdao University
Hospital in China, we share up-to-date
medical technology and information so
that we may interchange more advanced
medical techniques with each other. For
example, hospital director Lee, Gyeong-heon
played a part in delivering LASIK skills
and educating doctors.
St. Mary’s Eye Hospital has every equipment
that a Ophthalmology hospital is supposed
to have. We introduced a microkeratome
for the first time in Busan, and this
machine is for IntraLASIK which is considered
as the safest operation to correct nearsightedness.
There are two ultrasonic surgical instruments
called ‘Infiniti’ exclusively at our hospital,
and patients feel great contentment after
surgery with these machines because they
shorten the time of cataract surgery and
cause minimum damage to corneal endothelial
cells.
To keep with the new ‘Anti-aging’ trend,
we are establishing ourselves in correcting
farsightedness. We performed various surgery
to correct farsightedness, including LTK(Laser
Thermal Keratoplasty) from 2002, and CK
(Conductive Keratoplasty) and Accommodative
IOL(intraocular lens) in 2007. These days
we are using primarily CustomVue Laser
Vision Correction with the experiences
above. CustomVue procedure is accumulation
of state-of-the-art technology such as
iris recognition, and correction of Cycloduction
and Pupil Centroid Shift which makes it
possible to analize even minute deflection
of the eyeball and to shoot lasers accurately
on the cornea. This procedure helps patients
to see clearly without magnifying glasses
with corrected vision of more than 1.0,
and it was acknowledged by FDA in 2007.
The procedure takes shorter time, and
patients feel little pain and recover
quickly enough to do daily activities
on the very next day after surgery.
We do not neglect in sharing with others.
We provided free treatment and surgery
for those who live in the leprosy settlement
at Yongho-dong, Busan from 1988 when the
hospital was opened, and later for leprous
patients in Gijang-gun and Milyang-si.
We continue helping Health Centers with
medical treatment for soldier regular,
and doing checkup for students of Busan
School for the Blind, and giving treatment
and education at Busan-si Sports Center,
the Elderly College, the Elderly Community
Center, and churches. In addition, we
performed a free eyesight recovery operation
17 times in Vietnam and 3 times in China
where medical science relatively falls
behind. As a result, every time between
30 and 40 patients had the opportunity
to recover their sight.
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