The Czech Society of Refractive and Cataract Surgery is part of the Czech Medical Association of Jan Evangelista Purkyně (CSRCS CzMA JEP). Its main objective is to bring together ophthalmologists who primarily deal with treatment and surgical procedures in the anterior segment of the eye, i.e., the lens, iris, and cornea, as well as the treatment of congenital eye defects, glaucoma, eye injuries, etc. An important task of the society is to assist in the education of colleagues, create opportunities for sharing experiences, establish certain general principles for surgical procedures, and thereby maintain this field of ophthalmology at a high professional level.
Czech ophthalmology, and in particular anterior segment surgery, has undergone tremendous development over the last thirty years and, without exaggeration, today represents the absolute cutting edge of the field, even on a global scale.
Cataract surgery (removal of the clouded lens) has become the most common intraocular surgical procedure (and one of the most common surgical procedures in human medicine in general). More than 120,000 such operations are performed in the Czech Republic every year. Thanks to medical and technological advances, we are now able to restore our patients‘ vision lost due to cataracts and also correct pre-existing refractive errors such as hyperopia, myopia, astigmatism, and presbyopia. After surgery, patients can see better than ever before without glasses. Thanks to its very gentle nature, the operation is performed on an outpatient basis in the vast majority of cases, is completely painless, and in some cases it is even possible to operate on both eyes during a single visit to the medical facility. Recovery is very quick in most cases and, provided the recommended procedures are followed, the number of serious complications is minimal. However, the ongoing development of the materials used, especially artificial intraocular lenses and new technologies, requires monitoring of current professional information so that we can continue to provide our care based on EBM (evidence-based medicine).
The second main area in which our company provides professional services is refractive surgery – the correction of refractive errors and the need to wear corrective glasses through surgical procedures on the cornea or the anterior segment of the eye. PRK and LASIK laser procedures are primarily used, in which the curvature of the cornea is adjusted using photoablation, thereby inducing the desired dioptric change in the eye. Some clinics also offer KLEx technology, in which a thin layer of tissue is created and then removed from the cornea using a femtosecond laser, which again leads to a change in the curvature of the cornea. The implantation of additional intraocular lenses, which permanently correct congenital dioptric defects, is also becoming increasingly popular. The advantage of this type of procedure is that the cornea is left untouched. For some patients (e.g., those with a thin or significantly curved cornea), this type of non-laser procedure is significantly safer.
The third area that our colleagues in the association focus on is corneal diseases. Here, too, we can see enormous progress, both in diagnosis and in treatment options, both conservative and, above all, surgical. Corneal transplantation is one of the most dynamically developing subfields of ophthalmology and is capable of treating conditions that were very difficult to treat in the past. It is therefore necessary to continuously support the education of colleagues in this area so that we can offer and provide our patients with the most modern procedures.
