Newsblurb: Boston Sclerals in Houston

News coverage of Boston Scleral satellite in Houston:

Custom-made contact lenses benefit patients with corneal diseases

HOUSTON -- (October 31, 2008) -- Ophthalmologists at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston can now improve impaired vision of patients with damaged or transplanted corneas who cannot wear conventional contact lenses.

"There is a large group of patients who we cannot fit with conventional contact lenses, including trauma patients, patients with irregularly shaped corneas, severe dry eye or bad outcomes from Lasik surgery," said Dr. Stephen Pflugfelder, professor of ophthalmology at BCM and director of the Boston Ocular Surface Prosthesis clinic at the Baylor Eye Clinic. "This remarkable technology allows us to provide a custom-fit, prosthetic, oxygen-permeable contact lens that vaults over the cornea and improves eye sight."

Dr. Anisa Gire, therapeutic optometrist at the Baylor Eye Clinic, will begin fitting patients at the Baylor Eye Clinic at the Medical Building on the McNair Campus of BCM when it opens Nov. 4.

"We are proud to be one of two centers outside of Boston to offer this lens," said Dr. Dan B. Jones, chair and professor of ophthalmology at BCM. "It will be a major resource not only for patients who need the lens, but for the community and area ophthalmologists who previously had to refer patients to Boston to be fitted for the lens."