THE COCHIN ROTARIAN BULLETIN OF THE ROTARY CLUB OF COCHIN Volume 79, Issue 07, 13th August 2014 CHARTER NO. 4377 23RD AUGUST 1937 R.I. DISTRICT 3201 OFFICE BALBHAVAN & VOCATIONAL TRAINING CENTRE PANAMPILLY NAGAR, KOCHI- 682 036 PHONES: 2315430, 2314239 email: [email protected] website:www.rotarycochin.org PRESIDENT Rtn. MPHF P.S. Sukumaran VICE PRESIDENT Rtn. PHF Vice Adm R.P. Suthan TREASURER Rtn. MPHF PP K.P. Satish SECRETARY Rtn. PHF Susheel Deepak Aswani BULLETIN COMMITTEE Rtn. PHF George Thomas Rtn. PHF PP Sunder Rajagopal Rtn. PHF PP Raj Nayar Rtn. PHF Shweta S. Vasudevan Rtn. PHF Prakash Aswani Rtne. Kavita George Next Meeting Wednesday, 20th August 2014 at 6:30 PM at Rotary Balbhavan Panampilly Nagar Speaker Meeting Rtn. Jayashankar PRF Chair Topic: Speaking on PRF WEEKLY SPEAKER MEETING :6TH AUGUST 2014 O ur speaker for the evening Dr Vinay Sukumara Pillai was introduced by Rtn Dr George Poulose. Dr Vinay is the Senior consultant and Head of Cornea and refractive surgery services at Giridhar Eye Institute Kochi. He did his MBBS from Govt Medical College Trivandrum, followed by a Diploma from Regional Institute of Ophthalmology, Minto Ophthalmic hospital Bangalore. He was a consultant and faculty to some of the most prestigious ophthalmic institutions in Asia like Sankran Nethralaya in Chennai and LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad. His special interests are Ocular Surface disorders and Corneal stem cells, Keratoprosthesis, Ectatic corneal disorders, High risk corneal transplants and Pediatric corneal disorders. He has presented papers and invited by faculty in several national and international forums. To his credit he has multiple publications and has won awards like ASIA -AVRO 2009, DR NOEL MONIZ Anterial segment free paper award at Drishti in 2012, "GLAUCOMA IN BOSTON KERATOPROSTHESIS" which was judged as the best paper in Glaucoma at APAO-AIOC 2013. The Topic he spoke on was "Spectacle free life a myth or reality". In his talk he said that we actually see with our brain and the eyes just facilitates vision and acts as a transducer. He explained the different types of refractive errors like myopia and hyperopia. He spoke about the advantages and disadvantages of contact lenses, where red eyes, severe allergy and infection to the cornea can mar your vision are the main disadvantages. There are two surgical corrective measures one is laser treatment "LASIK" and the other one is "ICL {IMPLANTABLE COLLAMEL LENSES}. While LASIK is a more popular method of treatment, where the surface of cornea is reshaped using laser. There are no sutures, no stitches and no pain and totally bloodless. It has more than 95% accuracy and it is a one time procedure. People with eye disease, auto-immune disorders, pregnant ladies and nursing mothers cannot do this procedure. Only after a thorough evaluation can this procedure be done. It costs around Rs 25000- 30000. One third of the cases are rejected on various factors. An interactive session followed this very informative talk, which had all our members enlightened.