Preston woman first in UK for new keyhole eye surgery

Kal Chauhan Kal Chauhan was unable to have traditional laser eye surgery

A woman from Lancashire has become the first person in the UK to have pioneering new keyhole eye surgery.

Kal Chauhan, 45, from Preston, had worn glasses since she was nine years old and was unable to see anything more than 9cm (3.5in) away.

The new technique uses a laser five times more precise than traditional equipment and is accurate enough to inscribe a word on a grain of sand.

Mrs Chauhan said the new procedure had made a "massive difference".

She was unable to have traditional laser eye surgery due to a high prescription of -11 coupled with thin corneas.
'Less invasive'

The new procedure, using the ReLEx system, is less invasive and only takes about three minutes per eye.

A high precision laser is used to create micro-pulses beneath the surface of the cornea, allowing a specific lens shape of tissue required for focusing the eye to be delineated.

Mrs Chauhan said: "It's changed my whole life. My prescription was pretty bad, and I was so dependent on contact lenses and glasses.

"The first thing I'd do when I woke up was to reach for my glasses, and now I don't have to.

"I can wake up and I can see straight away."

Professor Dan Reinstein, founder of the London Vision Clinic and a pioneer of the procedure said: "The patient experience is greatly enhanced as there is less surgical manipulation of the eye, making it less invasive than traditional laser eye surgery.

"It also makes vision correction available to people who would have previously been told that they were unsuitable candidates."

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