Filipino eye specialists at par with foreign experts

MANILA, Philippines - Cataract surgery in 10 minutes. Make that both eyes, and have it done in 20 minutes, as if having “brand new” eyes and vision in a jiffy.

This highlights how advanced local technology is in eye treatment and surgeries, making it at par with world-class medical centers.

“Philippine ophthalmology is definitely at par with international standards,” says Dr. Carlos Naval, medical director of the Galileo Surgicenter, which recently launched its renovated facility at the Belson House building along EDSA in Mandaluyong City.

Now on its eighth year, the eye center has upgraded its modern facilities, so it could do eye surgeries like cataract extraction on an outpatient basis, with less expense and shorter recovery time.

“Our mission is to render excellent eye care for our patients and we make sure to have only the latest and most advanced tools and equipment for conducting the services the surgicenter now offers,” says Naval.

Naval also cautions eye patients on haphazard evaluations of their eye conditions. For most people, when they experience some eyestrain, blurring of vision, or other problems with their eyes, they immediately see an optometrist in an optical shop thinking that eyeglasses would quickly solve their problems.

“Not because your vision is clear with the eye glasses does it mean that you are free of eye disease,” warns Naval.

He adds that one could already be developing a more serious eye problem such as cataract or glaucoma.

Cataract and glaucoma are the two leading causes of blindness in people, which is why when Galileo Surgicenter started in 2002, the services it offered were focused on the treatment of these two eye diseases.

Over the years, it has continually improved on and added more to its services and facilities. “We took our eight years of existence as a sign that we were offering something good to the public so we decided to extend our services to include refractive surgery which include laser for myopia, hyperopia and farsightedness, and also eye surgeries for correcting vision problems for patients who are beyond the LASIK treatment,” says Naval.

LASIK is a modern form of treatment of refractive eye disorders which can make one see clearly without the need of his or her previously thick eyeglasses.

The Galileo Surgicenter is also an ambulatory eye care facility. Unlike in hospitals where patients have to go through long, rigorous and tiring tests and procedures which could take weeks before they are finally treated, they could simply walk into the surgicenter and come out a few minutes to a few hours after with their eyes fully treated.

“Some even go and have both eyes done in one sitting and they feel as if they have new eyes,” says Naval.

They at Galileo have modeled their whole facility to have everything their patients will need to get a complete and comprehensive treatment for the eye diseases they have covered in their services.