LYON — Success after success and excellence at all levels is the biggest headline for a Saudi exchange student here, thanks to the concern and attention of the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to Saudi exchange personnel through providing all innovation and excellence to them.

It is a success story of an innovative idea by a fellowship program exchange member from the King Abdulaziz University in Rabigh, Dr. Amr Abdulaal Abu Khashabah, who is specialized in retina surgery under the Saudi-French medical program.

Dr. Abu Khashabah and his fellow doctors at la Croix-Rousse University Hospital in Lyon managed to apply a different method to implant a new lens, a surgery that has been conducted to a few dozens of patients worldwide, and was effected successfully on a patient who had almost lost sight.

The doctor and his colleagues at the hospital took a different mode to implant the lens, with Dr. Abu Khashabah himself implanting the lens on the patient. The method’s hallmarks are that it is bit fast and needs shorter incision without the need to put stitches inside the eye, as well as changing the axis of the lens to reduce the holes.

Speaking to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) in Paris, Dr. Abu Khashabah spoke about this new approach. He said, “The biggest difference between the old and new method is not needing stitches in the internal wall of the eye, which is stabilized automatically through self-stabilization in a process that does not require a long or big incision rather than a smaller one that can be made in shorter time.”

He added, “The best way to stabilize the lens is not yet agreed upon due to the fact that the lens is still new and has not been applied but to a few cases in France.

“The difference that I made was related to changing the angle of the lens from zero to 180 degrees and moving it on an axis of 10 to 15 degrees in a way that facilitates putting it inside the eye in a technical way that reduces the number of holes with the use of the same place of implanting the lens from five holes to three fixed holes that do not change.”

He added the surgery took some 1.5 hours and included a microscopic test and full inspection of the eye in terms of sight, pressure and images, in addition to ensuring the absence of any factor that restricts the implantation of this lens.

These factors could be the separation of retina, noting that the results of these tests made it possible to conduct the surgery through local anesthesia and starting to stabilizing the eye from the outside with a special tool that allows entry to the eye, cleaning it from inside and extracting the previous lens that fell.

He said, “While conducting the surgery, there were some holes in the retina which I treated with laser before entering the front of the eye and making a small incision of two millimeters in the conjunctiva of the cornea to extract the old lens and insert the new one through the cornea before completing the installation without needing any stitches.”

The oculist stressed that the surgery and different mode for the lens implantation have received high praise from his French fellows at the hospital and now there are attempts to conduct the surgery on more than one case to fully ensure its effectiveness.

Dr. Abu Khashabah said that the exchange program is one of the most beautiful opportunities to be offered to someone, and the exchange program of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques is among the best in terms of the number of exchanged personnel, which enables them to know about other cultures and learn about their curricula and teaching methods to gain new knowledge and acquire new expertise.

He said, “In France, we had the opportunity to apply our knowledge in early years, which makes exchange programs an excellent opportunity to apply what we have learned of various methods in our precious homeland so that to contribute to the development of the medical sector more and more.”

He also expressed appreciation for the wise leadership for providing this opportunity to Saudi men and women to enable them to develop their capabilities and skills in service of this giving homeland and keep pace with the aspirations of the Saudi Vision 2030.

The oculist also appreciated the cultural attaché in France, represented by the Saudi-French medical program and the King Abdulaziz University for their belief in their students and for their continuous support and follow-up to develop work mechanisms and methods, in a bid for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to acquire advanced global ranks in the medical sector. — SPA