leigh melton

I found this rather funny. Most of us here would probably prefer not
to have our eyeballs operated upon, and these people do it for the
heck of it!

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4685961/

(There's a picture of the installed jewelry at the above URL.)

Updated: 4:00 p.m. ET April 07, 2004

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Body piercing and tattoos make way. The
latest fashion trend to hit the Netherlands is eyeball jewelry.

Dutch eye surgeons have implanted tiny pieces of jewelry called
“JewelEye� in the mucous membrane of the eyes of six women and one man
in cosmetic surgery pioneered by an ophthalmic surgery research and
development institute in Rotterdam.

The procedure involves inserting a 0.13 inch wide piece of specially
developed jewelry -- the range includes a glittering half-moon or
heart -- into the eye’s mucous membrane under local anaesthetic at a
cost of $610 to $1,232.

“In my view it is a little more subtle than (body) piercing. It is a
bit of a fun thing and a very personal thing for people,� said Gerrit
Melles, director of the Netherlands Institute for Innovative Ocular
Surgery.

The piece of jewelry is inserted in the conjunctiva -- the mucous
membrane lining the inner surface of the eyelids and front of the
eyeball -- in sterile conditions using an operating microscope in a
procedure taking about 15 minutes.

“Without doing any harm to the eye we can implant a jewel in the
conjunctiva,� Melles said. “So far we have not seen any side effects
or complications and we don’t expect any in the future.�

The Rotterdam-based institute, which develops new ocular surgical
techniques in corneal, cataract and retinal surgery, developed and
patented the jewelry made with special materials and the surgical
procedure.

The institute, which carries out the procedure in cooperation with an
eye clinic near the city of Utrecht, said it has a waiting list for
people who wanted the implant.

Leigh

--
"Why pay for cologne when mustard is free?" - Filburt

laura

Funny? I'd like to hear from an eye doctor what kind of eye problems
these people are opening themselves up to.

I don't believe there's any such thing as "minor" surgery. For
example, you'd think tongue-splitting was harmless, but I've read it
can cause a lot of complications, like infection.

eyeguyrc

I would guess the most common possible complication would be
scleritis, inflammation of the sclera (outer wall of the eye), either
of an infectious nature or secondary to chronic pressure or rubbing on
the eye tissues. There would be a mild risk of extrusion (the implant
working it's way through the conjunctiva), or erosion through the
sclera (having the implant end up inside the eye) as can occasionally
happen with scleral buckles after retinal detachment surgery. Seems
like a colossal waste of time and money. These doctors should be
ashamed of themselves.
--Rick Cohn, MD
Glaucoma Specialist
Winter Park, FL

steve

Yikes!
My retinas like to detach after cataract surgery, so I have scleral buckles
in both eyes. Nobody told me of this risk. How great is it? What happens
if it happens?
--
Steve
scgjd@pacbell.net

as can occasionally

eyeguyrc

--Dr. C.