Sunday, November 23, 2008
The 7-year-old has had multiple vision problems.
CINCINNATI (AP) — An Ohio boy born without irises is starting to see colors more clearly after receiving a prosthetic iris.
Surgeons from the Cincinnati Eye Institute implanted the custom-made device Thursday into the right eye of 7-year-old Nathaniel Brantley of suburban Cincinnati.
The manufacturer, HumanOptics/Dr. Schmidt Intraocularlinsen Co. in Germany, matched the implants to photographs of Nathaniel’s mother’s eyes.
Surgeon Michael Snyder says if all goes well, he’ll operate on Nathaniel’s left eye.
The iris is the colored part of the eye that controls the amount of light entering the eye.
Bright lights have always hurt Nathaniel’s eyes and he can’t focus well. Before the surgery, he couldn’t always see colors clearly.
“I can see red and blue and yellow and orange and green and white,” Nathaniel said afterward in the exam room.
On Friday, when Snyder asked Nathaniel to read the “teeny, teeny” row of numbers and letters near the bottom of the eye exam chart, he recited them perfectly.
Nathaniel has had several vision problems because he was born without irises. He often wears a baseball cap to protect his eyes and always wears sunglasses outside.
Nathaniel has cataracts, or clouding of the lenses of the eyes, and glaucoma, or increased pressure within the eye that can permanently damage his vision.
His eye also “jiggles” a little in the socket, which impairs his field of vision.
In Thursday’s surgery, Snyder removed the lens damaged by cataracts and replaced it with a new lens implant. Then he put the prosthetic iris in place.
Snyder had to get special permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to use the prosthetic iris because it isn’t approved in this country. The manufacturer donated the prosthetic.
Before the implant, it was obvious that Nathaniel’s eyes weren’t normal. Instead of a pupil surrounded by a ring of blue or brown, only a large, black pupil was visible, with a small, orange half-moon beneath it.
Protecting Nathaniel’s eyesight is the most important thing, Snyder said, but improving his appearance is a bonus.
“Kids are cruel when someone looks a little different,” he said.