Hosting the World’s Fastest Cataract Surgeon
Reported by Dr Nur Shahirah and Professor Dr Mae-Lynn Catherine Bastion
On 26th to 28th April 2019, Ophthalmology Department of UKM Medical Centre Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz successfully organised the National Cataract Surgery Symposium (NCSS) 2019. This 3-day symposium was attended by approximately 176 local and international delegates.
This was the first time the symposium was held together, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health Malaysia, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, Malaysian Universities Conjoint Committee of Ophthalmology (MUCCO) and Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS). The ceremony was officiated by Deputy Director General of Higher Education, Professor Dr Mohd Cairul Iqbal Mohd Amin, accompanied by Professor Dato’ Dr Razman Jarmin as the deputy director of the UKM Medical Centre and other distinguished guests including Head of Department of Ophthalmology, Associate Professor Dr Norshamsiah Md Din, Symposium Chairperson, Professor Dr Mae-Lynn Catherine Bastion and co-chairperson Dr Tang Seng Fai from Department of Ophthalmology, UKM. The ceremony was held at the Main Auditorium of UKM Medical Centre in Jalan Yaacob Latif, Cheras.
The Keynote lecture entitled “History of Cataract Surgery: Efforts to Improve the Quality and Efficiency “was delivered by Professor Dr Takayuki Akahoshi, former Director of Ophthalmology at the Mitsui Memorial Hospital Tokyo Japan. Professor Dr Akahoshi is an innovative surgeon, best known internationally for developing the Phacoemulsification Pre-chop technique and designing various instrumentation to improve cataract surgery. His techniques greatly reduce surgical time and energy which leads to a procedure that is easier and faster. He holds the record for fastest surgeon in the world with his average surgical time of less than 4 minutes. His fastest surgery has been recorded at an amazing 1 minute and 29 seconds!
In conjunction with our symposium, the Zeiss Lunch Symposium was presented by internationally renowned expert from Singapore, Associate Professor Dr Ronald Yeoh on the topic, “ Seamless Workflow: Enhancing the Patient and Surgeon Experience” on the first day. The symposium continued with exciting video presentations by Professor Dr Akahoshi and Associate Professor Dr Yeoh, on the challenging cases experienced in their centres.
On the second day of the symposium, the delegates were given the opportunity to observe Live Surgery by Prof Akahoshi from the Main Operating Theatre of Hospital UKM beamed to the audience at HUKM Auditorium. The Live Surgery comprised demonstration of operating room preparation and step by step detailed explanation of his phacoemulsification pre-chop technique with variety cases comprising simple to challenging cataract cases such as soft, medium, hard and mature cataracts and cataract in small pupil eye. Following each case of live surgery, an educational interactive session was held, whereby the audience interacted with Prof Dr Akahoshi through a teleconference moderated by Prof Dr Mae-Lynn and Dr Malisa Ami in the Auditorium. The Live surgery segment of NCSS 2019 coordinated by Dr Ayesha Md Zain and her team, was the second Live Ophthalmic surgery session to be held at HUKM in 15 years.
During the lunch break, local cataract expert, Dr Cheong Fook Meng delivered a riveting Alcon lunch talk on “Acrysof Platform: A Marathon Racer”. Subsequently, the programme continued with lectures on the steps of basic phacoemulsification by Prof Akahoshi and local expert teachers Dr Kok Howe Sen, Dr Azura Ramlee and Prof Dr Mae-Lynn. The audience of mainly trainees benefited from informative lectures on phacodynamics and basic steps of phacoemulsification surgery as well as various videos used to illustrate the points made.
On the last day of the symposium, participants were given the opportunity to perform hands-on phacoemulsification in the wet lab and supplementary suture lab coordinated by Dr Yong Meng Hsien and his team. Wet lab moderator Dr Kok Howe Sen showed the steps using the Kitaro eye model. Individual supervision and facilitation was provided by him and dedicated UKM Ophthalmology lecturers as well as Dr Wan Mohd Hafidz from MUCCO who sacrificed their day to provide instruction during the hands-on session using three forms of simulation for cataract surgery namely Kitaro eyes, goat eyes and synthetic skin. The programme ended promptly at 2 pm.
NCSS 2019 would not have been possible without the support of the whole committee working together with the agencies involved, and the sponsors from Alcon, Zeiss, Orbit Medica, Johnson and Johnson Vision, Swissmed, Santen and Schmidt BioMedTech. The feedback after the symposium was good, with requests for the event to be an annual event. The Symposium has succeeded in elevating the Ophthalmology Department of UKM Medical Centre to an internationally renowned training centre for cataract surgery.
From the left: Associate Prof. Dr Norshamsiah Md Din, Prof. Dr Takayuki Akahoshi, Prof. Dr Mae-Lynn Catherine Bastion, Prof. Dr Mohd Cairul Iqbal Mohd Amin and Prof. Dato’ Dr Razman Jarmin during the NCSS 2019 ceremony.
Prof. Dr Mohd Cairul Iqbal Mohd Amin knocked the ‘gong’ to officiate the ceremony.
Participants were enthusiastic during the phacoemulsification wet lab training under supervision by UKM Ophthalmology lecturer, Dr Wan Haslina Wan Abdul Halim.