FIVE PATIENTS LOSE AN EYE EACH AFTER CATERACT OP DISASTER

 Cyprus Mail 23 October 2020 - by Gina Agapiou

Five patients have each had to have one of their eyes removed after being infected during cataract surgery at Apollonion hospital, it emerged on Friday.

One of those patients, who also has underlying health conditions, was removed to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Nicosia general hospital early on Friday.

“We had to do a corrective procedure on five of the patients on Thursday, to prevent the infection from spreading to their brain,” the ophthalmologist under whose care they are, Theodoros Potamitis told the Cyprus Mail.

The life of those patients was at risk, as the infection could damage their brain functions, risking their lives, the ophthalmologist said.

The patients and their families were initially very upset, he said, but they were grateful that there was a way of stopping their pain and prevent further damage to their health. All patients can see ‘pretty well’ with their remaining eye, their doctor added.

“The patients have been through a lot these days. Removing their eye was a relief to them and their families,” Potamitis added.

The five were among the eight patients who were infected with pseudomonas endophthalmitis infection, antibiotic resistant bacteria that lives in the back of the eye and damages the nerve tissue. The eight are being treated in the Makarios and Nicosia public hospitals after they were infected during eye surgery last Tuesday.

Potamitis, who is the clinical director of Pantheo eye centre in Limassol and the doctor who performed corrective surgery to most of the patients, has been visiting them in Nicosia on a daily basis, as Pantheo does not provide inpatient care.

According to the doctor the next 24 hours are critical to determine the state of the patients, but their doctor is hopeful that the procedure was successful, and they will not face any further complications.

On a very slightly more positive note, one of the three remaining patients, who received two additional surgeries after the initial one at Apollonion caused her the infection, started to improve on Friday.

“She got 20 per cent of her vision back, while the two other patients have about 25 per cent of their vision at this stage,” Potamitis said. This means that the three patients have lost approximately 80 per cent of their vision.

The patients developed infection symptoms three days after their original operations.

“It is unusual that eight patients in a row got infected. This meant that something during the surgery had gone wrong, either a procedure or a piece of equipment was broken or not cleaned properly,” Potamitis said.