Robot Surgery System

Robotics, Agent Modelling and Vision Research Groups and Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 22:51:00 +0000

Robotics, Agent Modelling and Vision Research Groups and Resources:

AgentLink : An open European research network providing various resources including links to agent researchers and developers, agent-related events (conferences and workshops), European R&D; projects on agent technology, and a number of special interest groups.

AgentWeb - Intelligent Software Agents : Information and resources related to intelligent information agents, intentional agents, software agents, soft bots, know bots, info bots, etc. Also some pointers to research on agent-oriented robotics. Maintained by Timothy Finin at UMBC.

Amsterdam - Intelligent Autonomous Systems : Research papers, pre-prints, introductory textbook on neural networks and robotics.

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Resources : Collection of links to autonomous underwater vehicle-related research, maintained by Maja Matijasevic at the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

Bern - Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence

Birmingham - Cognition and Affect Directory : Research papers by Aaron Sloman, Louise Pryor, Luc Beaudoin and others.

Bonn - Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Group

Bonn - Complex Learning Systems: The Mobile Robot (RHINO)

British Columbia (UBC) - Laboratory for Computational Intelligence (LCI) : Research in computational reasoning, action and perception, and robotics.

British Machine Vision Association and Society for Pattern Recognition (BMVA)

Brown - Robotics

California-Berkeley (UCB) - Robotics and Intelligent Machines Lab : Research, publications, demos and movies, tools and external links.

California-San Diego (UCSD) - Interactive Cognition Lab - Librarian Agent Project : Research on software agents which can help users find resource materials in large libraries.

California-San Diego (UCSD) - Visual Computing Laboratory : Research on interactive and immersive video, content-based and similarity-based retrieval in visual information systems, retinal image databases, neuroscience information systems, robotics, vision and image processing.

Caltech - Robotics : Research and publications on hyper-redundant robotics systems, robotic locomotion, sensor-based motion planning, modular robots, medical robotics, global optimization and analog VLSI, grasping and fixture planning and basic kinematics.

Cambridge - Speech, Vision and Robotics (SVR) Group

Carnegie Mellon - Artificial Intelligence Repository : Software packages for intelligent agent architectures, artificial life and complex adaptive systems, machine learning, planning, robotics, vision, and many others.

Carnegie Mellon (CMU) - Computer Science Research : Research on robotic cognition, robotic locomotion, robotic manipulation, robotic manufacturing and automation, robotic vision, intelligent coordination and logistics, active perception, learning, reinforcement learning, computer vision and image processing, and many other areas.

Case Western Reserve (CWRU) - Autonomous Agents Research Group : Research and publications on evolution of dynamical nervous systems (continuous-time recurrent neural networks) for autonomous agents, dynamics of adaptive behaviour, biologically-inspired robotics and other topics. Randall Beer.

Central Research and Design Institute for Robotics and Technical Cybernetics, St.Petersburg : Research in robotics (including special and space robotic systems, submarine robots, fire-fighting robots and robot operators for nuclear power stations), photon technics, control and monitoring systems, laser technologies, information systems and computer networks, telematics and LAN manufacturing.

Chicago - Artificial Intelligence Laboratory - Animate Agent Project : Research and publications on intelligent, goal-directed behavior in software and hardware agents, using both reactive control and symbolic planning.

Colorado - Linguistic Geometry : Application of syntactic tools for knowledge representation and reasoning about large-scale hierarchical complex systems to search problems such as autonomous robot navigation planning. Boris Stilman.

Denmark (DIKU) - Computer Vision Research Group : Research and publications on computer vision, robotics and statistics.

Cornell - Robotics and Vision Laboratory : Research in machine vision, navigation and tracking, robotic manipulation, distributed and cooperative robotics, microelectromechanical systems, planning and control, uncertainty and error, and geometric algorithms. Technical and research papers available by FTP.

Delft University of Technology - Control Laboratory : Research in dexterous gripping and manipulation, fine-motion control, force reflection and bilateral control, high-level control of grippers and robots, low-level gripper control, and robot facilities.

Dresden - Artificial Intelligence Institute - Mobile Robotics

Dublin - Electronic Engineering - Autonomous Systems Group - FTP : Research on artificial systems exhibiting autonomous behaviour and organisation comparable to that of biological organisms. Projects with real (LEGO) robots, within the evolutionary robotics paradigm, and cellular automata-based studies of simple biological organisation.

Edinburgh - Machine Vision Unit

Edinburgh - Mobile Robots Group : Research on real-world autonomous agents using non-symbolic-logical tools including behaviour-based architectures, neural nets, genetic algorithms, ethology and control theory.

Engineering Services Inc (ESI) : A Canadian consulting company specialising in custom-made mobile and modular robotic systems for industrial, military and medical applications.

Essex - Robots - FTP

Euro-Robots - Mobile Robots Archive : Links to competitions, conferences, FAQs, simulators, components, commercial and research groups and other information related to mobile robots and intelligent autonomous vehicles.

European Computer Vision Network (ECVNet)

FISC (Financement Insertion en Sciences Cognitives) Mailing List - English or French : International mailing list devoted to jobs, post-docs and grants in cognitive science, interpreted broadly to include all disciplines covered by this resource guide. Highly recommended.

Free University of Brussels (VUB) - Artificial Intelligence Laboratory : Luc Steels.

French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA) - Robotics, Image and Vision

Geneva University Hospital (UIN-CIH) - Distributed Artificial Intelligence : Research and publications on multi-agent systems, their application to problem solving in a biomedical field, the design of agent-oriented languages, and multi-agent vision systems. Olivier Baujard.

Georgia Tech - Learning and Adaptation in Autonomous Intelligent Agents Research

Georgia Tech - Mobile Robotics Laboratory : Research and publications on multi-agent robotic systems, reactive control, ecological robotics, low-level nuclear waste inspection, unmanned aerial vehicles, mobile manipulation, integrated planning and learning, and learning and adaptation in autonomous robotic systems. Directed by Ronald Arkin.

German National Research Centre for Information Technology (GMD) - Autonomous Systems : Research on adaptive systems (evolutionary algorithms, statistical learning and exploration procedures, adaptive robotics, open systems), cognitive robotics (behavioural principles for autonomy, robustness, adaptivity, self-organization) and other areas. Projects on distributed real time control, object orientation, dynamic scheduling, reflective adaptive multi-agent control systems, operation in open environments, anthropomorphic two-armed robots, sewerage robots, autonomous vehicles, mapping, localization, reactive and goal oriented navigation, vision-based navigation and other topics.

Germany - Robotics in Germany : An extensive and detailed list of institutes, groups, and people doing robotics research in Germany. Maintained by Uwe R. Zimmer.

GMD - Japan Research Laboratory : Research and publications on autonomous robust robots.

Graduate Students Who's Who in Robotics

Harvard - Robotics Lab:

Helsinki University of Technology (HUT) - Automation Laboratory : Research and publications on automation technology including mobile robotics, interactive robotics, mechatronics and control of industrial processes.

Illinois - Artificial Intelligence Group : Computer and robot vision, navigational schemes, knowledge representation, automated decision systems, deductive and inductive reasoning methods, analysis and generation of natural language, cognitive modelling and simulation, robotic motion, task planning, and plan execution/error recovery schemes.

Indiana - Robotics Lab

Intelligent Software Agents : Repository of information about people, papers and other WWW pages relating to intelligent software agents. Includes facilities to add yourself and/or your own papers. Maintained by Ralph Becket at Cambridge.

Intelligent Software Agents : Resource guide to information integration agents, coordinated agents, mobile agents, assistant agents, believable agents, recommended reading and other resources. Maintained by Sverker Janson at SICS.

Interface Agents : Bibliography and resources on autonomous agents in HCI and CSCW. Maintained by Andy Wood at Birmingham.

International Society for Adaptive Behavior (ISAB) : A scientific society devoted to education and furthering research on adaptive behaviour in animals, animats, software agents and robots. Links to relevant journals, conferences, jobs, research groups etc.

Iowa - Artificial Intelligence Research Group : Vasant Honavar and others, principally on symbolic/connectionist systems. Research papers available online.

Istituto Dalle Molle di Studi sull'Intelligenza Artificiale (IDSIA), Lugano: Research on AI tools, robotics (execution, planning and learning of sensor-based activities), knowledge discovery, artificial life, linguistics and second language learning, reinforcement learning, evolutionary computation, neural networks and other areas.

Japan - Robotics in Japan : An extensive list of institutes, groups, and people concerned with robotics and related topics (including artificial life, neural networks, vision and cognition) in Japan. Maintained by Uwe Zimmer at GMD.

Kaiserslautern - Autonomous Mobile Robots Research Group : Research and publications on self-localization, exploration, navigation, world modelling, neural networks, subsymbolic and geometric abstractions, object recognition, realtime communication and operating systems, operation in hazardous environments and other topics.

Kawato Dynamic Brain Project - Humanoid Robot:

Kent at Canterbury - Electronic Engineering - Mobile Robots Research Group

Laboratoire d'Analyse et d'Architecture des Systèmes du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (LAAS/CNRS) - Robotics and AI Group (LAAS/RIA) - Seminars

Lausanne,

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) - Autonomous Systems Lab (ASL) : Research on mobile robotics (service robots, personal robots), micro robotics and ultra precision micro machines. Offers the ASL Forum, a platform for discussions on mobile robotics and related subjects.

Lausanne, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) - Institute of Robotics Systems : Research and publications on surgical robotics, ergonomics of intelligent systems and design, micromechatronics, high precision robotics, parallel robots, robot controllers, vision, autonomous systems and other topics.

Lausanne, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) - Laboratoire de Microinformatique (LAMI) : Research on neuro-mimetic systems, robot learning, collective robotics, mobile robots, biovision and robotics, computer vision, miniature robots and subsystems, and other robotics related activities.

LEGO Robots:

Leibniz Laboratory - Systèmes Cognitifs / Cognitive Systems : Cognitive systems - investigation, modelling and implementation of cognitive abilities such as knowledge representation, reasoning, perception, action, learning and language - and interdisciplinary research on neural networks, probabilistic models and genetic algorithms in robotics and AI, multi-agent systems and other areas.

LIFIA - Laboratoire d'Informatique Fondamentale et d'Intelligence Artificielle : at the Informatique et Mathematique Appliquee de Grenoble (IMAG) Institute. Research in logics and automated deduction, knowledge bases, multi-agent paradigm for AI, neural nets, computer vision, robot programming, and mobile robotics.

Linkvping Institute of Technology - Robotics / Autonomous Mechanical Systems

London-Queen Mary and Westfield College (QMW) - Distributed Artificial Intelligence

Unit : Research and publications on distributed AI, intelligent autonomous agents and multi-agent systems. Includes hypertext document "Intelligent Agents: Theory and Practice", a list of agent-related pages and a list of agent-related bibliographic databases. Michael Wooldridge and Nick Jennings.

London-University College (UCL) - Neural Computation and Robotics Group : Research and publications on modelling neuronal function, multi-unit recording, robotics and virtual reality.

London and South East Centre for High Performance Computing (SEL-HPC) - Vision and

Image Processing Archive : Articles on low level image processing and tracking, intermediate level vision (model matching), high level vision (image understanding), vision with parallel processing, and other subjects. Also, links to home pages of researchers in vision. Users can add their own articles, and a link to their own home page.

Lulea University of Technology - Robotics and Automation : Research on mobile robot navigation, tele-operation and semi-autonomous robots, range camera applications and tele-instruction.

Lund - Cognitive Science (LUCS) - Research Projects : Research on robots with autonomous spatial learning, neural vision, adaptation, learning and motivation in artificial creatures, and other topics.

Manchester - Robotics : Research on new control mechanisms for mobile robots. Current focus on autonomous robot competence acquisition, machine learning through tuition and mobile robot navigation.

Maryland - Autonomous Mobile Robot Laboratory

Massachusetts (UMass) - Center for Autonomous Real-Time Systems

Massachusetts (UMass) - Computer Vision Research Laboratory

Massachusetts (UMass) - Distributed Artificial Intelligence Group : Research in multiple agent interaction, sensor interpretation, sound understanding, real-time scheduling, and resource-constrained scheduling.

Massachusetts (UMass) - Experimental Knowledge Systems Laboratory (EKSL) : Research in autonomous agents operating in complex, real-world environments.

Massachussetts (UMass) - Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics : Research areas include dexterous manipulation (reaching and grasping), mobile robot navigation, geometric reasoning, assembly planning, and the application of learning theory to robotics.

Massachusetts (UMass) - Resource-Bounded Reasoning Research Group : Research on the implications of limited computational resources on the design of intelligent agents, including decision theory, real-time planning, autonomous agent architectures and reasoning under uncertainty.

McGill - Center for Intelligent Machines (CIM) : Research in mobile robotics and shape recognition, and biologically motivated robot vision systems.

McGill - Ophthalmology - Vision Research : Research and publications on a wide range of approaches in vision science, including human psychophysics, animal neurophysiology, computational modelling, functional imaging and clinical applications.

Michigan - ARPA Real Time Planning and Control Program for Unmanned Ground

Vehicles : Research, papers and related external links on the coordination of multiple cooperating vehicles performing a mission, including planning and replanning, plan recognition, communication, and assimilation of environmental information.

Michigan - Distributed Intelligent Agents Group : Research and papers on multiagent planning and coordination as distributed search, multiagent planning and coordination for unmanned ground vehicles, coordination through plan recognition, organizational self design, intelligent agent infrastructures for supporting collaboration, recursive agent modelling, and procedural reasoning systems.

MIT - AI Lab - Robotics and Machine Vision : Research on computer vision, mobile robotics, microrobotics, humanoid robotics, artificial muscles, haptic interfaces, vision and touch guided manipulation, and robot hands.

MIT - The Cog Shop : The Cog humanoid robot project. Rodney Brooks and colleagues.

MIT - Media Laboratory - Research Groups : Research and publications on machine listening, machine understanding, software agents, spatial imaging, vision and modelling and many other topics.

Monash - Intelligent Robotics Research Centre

NASA - Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) - Robotics

NASA - Johnson Space Center - Automation and Robotics Division

NASA - Space Telerobotics Program

New South Wales - Artificial Intelligence : Research in cognitive science, control applications, knowledge acquisition, machine learning, mufti-agent problem solving, natural language understanding, neural networks, qualitative methods, robotics, vision and pattern recognition.

North Carolina-Chapel Hill - Computer Science - Neural Networks and Vision : Research on neural network models of visual perception.

Northwestern - Intelligent Perception and Action Lab : Biologically inspired and knowledge-intensive systems that interact intelligently with the world via a camera and robot hand.

Nottingham - Artificial Intelligence Research Group Research and papers on knowledge-based systems, knowledge acquisition, autonomous agents, intelligent tutoring systems, planning, natural language understanding, cognitive modelling and associated tools, evolutionary simulation, adaptive behavior, and artificial life.

Nottingham - Autonomous Agents

Oxford - Eye-Movement Centre (OEMC)

Oxford - Robotics Research Group

Paris-Ecole Normale Superieure - Groupe de BioInformatique : Research on animates, neural networks, genetic algorithms, image processing and vision, and links to related sites.

Pennsylvania - Computational Vision Research

Pennsylvania - General Robotics and Active Sensory Perception (GRASP) Laboratory : Ruzena Bajcsy.

Pennsylvania - Vision Research Center

Pilot European Image Processing Archive (PEIPA)

Queen's - Robotics and Perception Laboratory : Research and publications on computational vision, tactile perception and robot control.

Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction : Introductory textbook on reinforcement learning by Richard Sutton and Andrew Barto (1998). The book is published by MIT Press, and a full on-line version is also available. Topics covered include evaluative feedback, the agent-environment interface, goals and rewards, the Markov property, Markov decision processes, optimal value functions, dynamic programming, Monte Carlo methods, temporal difference learning, eligibility traces, generalization and function approximation, planning and learning.

The 6.270 Robot Builder's Guide : The course notes to the 1992 MIT LEGO Robot Design Competition, by Fred Martin.

Robot Builder's Resources

Robotics Internet Resources : Maintained by Chris Connolly at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Robotics Internet Sources : Maintained by Jason Al meter at Indiana University.

Rochester - Computer Science (URCS) - Robotics : Research on robotic tel manipulation and hand-eye coordination.

Rochester - Computer Science (URCS) - Robotics and Vision Technical Reports : Dana Ballard.

Rochester - Computer Science (URCS) - Vision and Robotics Lab

Rutgers - Vision Research Laboratory : Research on stereoscopic and occlusion perception, apparent motion, texture segregation and modelling, the role of attention in visual tasks, models for spacial and motion perception, human factors, learning processes for perception tasks, sharpness perception in color, and image compression based on human visual performance.

St.Petersburg - Central Research and Design Institute for Robotics and Technical

Cybernetics : Research in robotics (including special and space robotic systems, submarine robots, fire-fighting robots and robot operators for nuclear power stations), photon technics, control and monitoring systems, laser technologies, information systems and computer networks, telematics and LAN manufacturing.

Salford - Electronic and Electrical Engineering- Mobile Robot Research

Software Agents Mailing List : A software agents mailing list and related materials. Maintained by Ray Johnson at Lockheed.

South Carolina - Electrical and Computer Engineering - Mobile Robotics Laboratory

Southampton - Image, Speech and Intelligent Systems (ISIS) Research Group : Research and publications on computer vision and image processing (feature extraction, 3D imaging, face recognition, texture analysis, image interpretation and analysis) and many other topics. See previous entries.

Southern California (USC) - Robotics Research Laboratory : Research in autonomous robotics, biological and artificial neural systems, reinforcement learning, genetic algorithms, robotic and prosthetic hands, design for assembly, and fuzzy control. Affiliated with the Center for Neural Engineering, directed by Michael Arbib.

SRI International - Engineering Research : Links to Artificial Intelligence Center (AIC), Computer Science Laboratory (CSL), research groups in virtual perception, machine vision and robotics.

Stanford - Adaptive Intelligent Systems : Research and publications on architectural foundations, selective attention, reasoning processes for diagnosis, prediction, and planning, reactive behavior, real-time control, global coordination of multiple tasks, motivational factors, reasoning by analogy, improvisation under constraints, learning from experience. Barbara Hayes-Roth.

Stanford - Advanced Manipulation Group

Stanford - Artificial Intelligence And Robotics

Stanford - Robotics : Modelling artificial agents and their environments. Emphasis on computational reasons for ascribing mental attitudes to machines, and on the relation between symbolic reasoning and sensory-motor activity. Yoav Shoham.

Stanford - Robotics : Research on manipulation, machine learning, navigation, vision, tactile sensing, and reasoning.

Stanford - Robotics and Planning : Research and reports on mobile robot navigation, path planning, assembly planning, dynamic adaptation of individual perception-action control plans. Jean-Claude Latombe.

Stanford - Vision and Imaging Science and Technology

Stanford Research Institute (SRI) - Flakey Papers

Surrey - Vision, Speech and Signal Processing Group (CVSSP) : Research on computer vision, image analysis, image communication, multimedia systems, speech processing, and signal detection.

Sussex - Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics

Sussex - Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems Group : One of the world's largest groups of researchers studying artificial evolutionary and adaptive systems (work often described as artificial life, evolutionary computation, and adaptive behaviour research) including Dave Cliff, Inman Harvey and Phil Husbands.

Sussex - POPBUGS : A simulation environment which lets you experiment with simple, simulated robots in a 2D world. Demonstrations include simulations of Braitenberg vehicles. Chris Thornton.

Sussex - Vision

Szeged/Institute of Isotopes of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences - Adaptive Systems : Research and publications on self-organized artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms, autonomous agents, reinforcement learning, constructive learning, concept learning, biological modelling and analog/mixed VLSI design.

Texas - Qualitative Reasoning Research Group : Research and publications on qualitative reasoning about the physical world, spatial reasoning and intelligent robotics, resource-limited approaches to knowledge representation. Benjamin Kuipers.

Toronto - Cognitive Robotics : Yves Lesperance, Hector Levesque

Toronto - Robotics and Automation Laboratory (RAL)

Troms / Cornell - TACOMA Project : Operating system support for networking software agents, and how agents can be used to solve problems traditionally addressed by operating systems.

Tsukuba - Intelligent Robot Laboratory

Utah - Robotics and Computer Vision

Vanderbilt - Center for Intelligent Systems (CIS) : Research and publications on service robots and human/robot symbiosis.

Vision 1 - Vision and Imaging Technology Resource : Commercial site including product information, extensive list of commercial, academic and government links, technical support and links to vision-related FAQs.

Vision-Based Robot Navigation Research Network (VIRGO) : A network of ten European computer vision and robotics research institutes.

Vision-List Archive

Walking Machines Catalog : Collection of links to walking machine-related research, maintained by Karsten Berns at FZI in Karlsruhe.

Waseda - Humanoid Project : Anthropomorphic robot with sensing, recognition, expression and motion sub-systems. Links to other Japanese robotics sites.

Washington - Bio robotics

West of England (UWE) - Intelligent Autonomous Systems Engineering Laboratory : Research in neural networks, genetic algorithms and machine learning techniques, for intelligent autonomous control systems operating in real-world environments. Applications in manufacturing, mechanical and aeronautical engineering.

Western Australia - Robotics and Automation Laboratory : Research on robotic teleoperation using WWW, robotic sheep shearing, snakes in image processing, robot calibration, robotic manipulation of small plants, low cost techniques for robot prototyping, and other projects.

Wollongong - Intelligent Systems and Software Engineering (Robotics)

Yale - Vision and Robotics Group : Research on motion analysis, neural network-based recognition, geometric reasoning, human and computer object recognition, mobile robotics, sensor-based manipulation, control of highly dynamic nonlinear systems, and planning.

Zurich (UNIZH) - Artificial Intelligence Laboratory : Interdisciplinary research and publications on the study of intelligence in natural and artificial systems, specializing in situated design and autonomous agent design. Neural network-based, biologically inspired robots. Rolf Pfeifer.

Best Robotic Surgery Universities Around USA

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 21:44:00 +0000

Best Robotic Surgery Universities Around USA

Colorado School Of Mines

Mining is an incredibly complex pursuit, and robots can step in to do dangerous work to save lives. Someone needs to build them, and the Colorado School of Mines has its Center for Automation, Robotics, and Distributed Intelligence (CARDI) to equip people with the tools to do so.

Because it's a mining-centric school, curriculum runs the gamut from communication protocols to environmental considerations. CARDI students meet once a month over lunch to keep each other apprised of their research — one person will give a presentation on what they're up to, and the meetings frequently feature a guest to speak on topics relevant to the industry.

If you want to check out a cool project to come out of the school, we recommend "Intelligent Geosystems."

Stanford University

Since its founding in 1962, Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory has been facilitating robotics education for 52 years. Students gather for weekly reading groups to dissect robotics papers and discuss the latest developments in their fields.

Its faculty's list of interests is loaded with fun robo-buzzwords: informatics, logic, machine learning, natural language processing, and so on.

Columbia University

The projects described on the website for Columbia University's Robotics Group are impressive to say the least. Students have built autonomous vehicles for navigating urban environments, 3-D simulation tools to teach robots how to interact with the real world, and even a system for facilitate aspects of surgery-by-robot.

The program is headed up by Professor Peter Allen, who was named a Presidential Young Investigator by the National Science Foundation.

Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech's Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines is led by Henrik Christensen, a noted roboticist and thinker who recently speculated that children born today will never have to drive a conventional car. He's constantly cited as a source for where robotics is heading in the future, even speculating here as to what Google will do with all its recent robotics acquisitions.

The program aims to give students an understanding of a diversity of robotics topics, such as mechanics, interactions, perceptions, and artificial intelligence and cognition.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MIT is nearly synonymous with developing cool, cutting-edge technology.

Its Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory has spawned a number of robotic creations, and its long list of notable alumni includes folks like Colin Angle and Helen Greiner, co-founders of iRobot; Marc Raibert, founder of Boston Dynamics; and Matt Mason, who is now director of The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.

There's something to be said for a school whose alumni make up the majority of the country's computer science professors.

Washington University in St. Louis

Often referred to as the "Harvard of the Midwest," WashU offers a masters of engineering in robotics. The program is built around giving students the necessary experience to find professional robotics work upon graduation, and the curriculum is built upon making sense of robotic components like sensors and actuators, then finding new ways to use them to solve problems.

Students enrolled in the program will go hands-on with mobile robotics, robot-human interaction, and brain-computer interfaces.

UC Berkeley

The Robotics and Intelligent Machines Lab at UC Berkeley has an entire department devoted to replicating animal movement for the sake of improving robotic mobility. The school's Laboratory for Automation Science and Engineering gets into more general robotics work, designing solutions for things like robot-assisted surgery and automated manufacturing. There's even an entire Computer Vision Group so that students might learn how to help robots make sense of what they "see."

It's an incredibly robust college for robotics that will likely meet your interests no matter what they are.

Robotic surgery vs current issue

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 21:05:00 +0000

Robotic Surgery

Objective:

To review the history, development, and current applications of robotics in surgery.

Background:

Surgical robotics is a new technology that holds significant promise. Robotic surgery is often heralded as the new revolution, and it is one of the most talked about subjects in surgery today. Up to this point in time, however, the drive to develop and obtain robotic devices has been largely driven by the market. There is no doubt that they will become an important tool in the surgical armamentarium, but the extent of their use is still evolving.

Methods:

A review of the literature was undertaken using Medline. Articles describing the history and development of surgical robots were identified as were articles reporting data on applications.

Results:

Several centers are currently using surgical robots and publishing data. Most of these early studies report that robotic surgery is feasible. There is, however, a paucity of data regarding costs and benefits of robotics versus conventional techniques.

Conclusions:

Robotic surgery is still in its infancy and its niche has not yet been well defined. Its current practical uses are mostly confined to smaller surgical procedures.

Robotic surgery is a new and exciting emerging technology that is taking the surgical profession by storm. Up to this point, however, the race to acquire and incorporate this emerging technology has primarily been driven by the market.

In addition, surgical robots have become the entry fee for centers wanting to be known for excellence in minimally invasive surgery despite the current lack of practical applications. Therefore, robotic devices seem to have more of a marketing role than a practical role. Whether or not robotic devices will grow into a more practical role remains to be seen.

Our goal in writing this review is to provide an objective evaluation of this technology and to touch on some of the subjects that manufacturers of robots do not readily disclose.

In this article we discuss the development and evolution of robotic surgery, review current robotic systems, review the current data, discuss the current role of robotics in surgery, and finally we discuss the possible roles of robotic surgery in the future.

It is our hope that by the end of this article the reader will be able to make a more informed decision about robotic surgery before “chasing the market.”
Overview details given with link provided.

Future of robotic surgery

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 21:01:00 +0000

Future of Robotic Surgery:

Robotic surgery is in its infancy. Many obstacles and disadvantages will be resolved in time and no doubt many other questions will arise. Many question have yet to be asked; questions such as malpractice liability, credentialing, training requirements, and interstate licensing for tele-surgeons, to name just a few.

Many of current advantages in robotic assisted surgery ensure its continued development and expansion. For example, the sophistication of the controls and the multiple degrees of freedom afforded by the Zeus and da Vinci systems allow increased mobility and no tremor without comprising the visual field to make micro anastomosis possible.

Many have made the observation that robotic systems are information systems and as such they have the ability to interface and integrate many of the technologies being developed for and currently used in the operating room. One exciting possibility is expanding the use of preoperative (computed tomography or magnetic resonance) and intraoperative video image fusion to better guide the surgeon in dissection and identifying pathology. These data may also be used to rehearse complex procedures before they are undertaken.

The nature of robotic systems also makes the possibility of long-distance intraoperative consultation or guidance possible and it may provide new opportunities for teaching and assessment of new surgeons through mentoring and simulation. Computer Motion, the makers of the Zeus robotic surgical system, is already marketing a device called SOCRATES that allows surgeons at remote sites to connect to an operating room and share video and audio, to use a “telestrator” to highlight anatomy, and to control the AESOP endoscopic camera.

Technically, much remains to be done before robotic surgery’s full potential can be realized. Although these systems have greatly improved dexterity, they have yet to develop the full potential in instrumentation or to incorporate the full range of sensory input. More standard mechanical tools and more energy directed tools need to be developed. Some authors also believe that robotic surgery can be extended into the realm of advanced diagnostic testing with the development and use of ultrasonography, near infrared, and confocal microscopy equipment.

Much like the robots in popular culture, the future of robotics in surgery is limited only by imagination. Many future “advancements” are already being researched.

Some laboratories, including the authors’ laboratory, are currently working on systems to relay touch sensation from robotic instruments back to the surgeon. Other laboratories are working on improving current methods and developing new devices for suture-less anastomoses.

When most people think about robotics, they think about automation. The possibility of automating some tasks is both exciting and controversial. Future systems might include the ability for a surgeon to program the surgery and merely supervise as the robot performs most of the tasks.

The possibilities for improvement and advancement are only limited by imagination and

robot for surgical procedures approved by FDA

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 20:58:00 +0000

Clinical Application and Data

Several robotic systems are currently approved by the FDA for specific surgical procedures. As mentioned previously, ROBODOC is used to precisely core out the femur in hip replacement surgery. Computer Motion Inc. of Goleta, CA, has 2 systems on the market. One, called AESOP, is a voice-controlled endoscope with 7 degrees of freedom. This system can be used in any laparoscopic procedure to enhance the surgeon’s ability to control a stable image.

The Zeus system and the Da Vinci system have been used by a variety of disciplines for laparoscopic surgeries, including cholecystectomies, mitral valve repairs, radical prostatectomies, reversal of tubal ligations, in addition to many gastrointestinal surgeries, nephrectomies, and kidney transplants.

The number and types of surgeries being performed with robots is increasing rapidly as more institutions acquire these systems. Perhaps the most notable use of these systems, however, is in totally endoscopic coronary artery grafting, a procedure formerly outside the limitations of laparoscopic technology.

The amount of data being generated on robotic surgery is growing rapidly, and the early data are promising. Many studies have evaluated the feasibility of robot-assisted surgery. One study by Cadiere et al evaluated the feasibility of robotic laparoscopic surgery on 146 patients. Procedures performed with a Da Vinci robot included 39 antireflux procedures, 48 cholecystectomies, 28 tubal reanastomoses, 10 gastroplasties for obesity, 3 inguinal hernia repairs, 3 intrarectal procedures, 2 hysterectomies, 2 cardiac procedures, 2 prostatectomies, 2 artiovenous fistulas, 1 lumbar sympathectomy, 1 appendectomy, 1 laryngeal exploration, 1 varicocele ligation, 1 endometriosis cure, and 1 neosalpingostomy.

This study found robotic laparoscopic surgery to be feasible. They also found the robot to be most useful in intra-abdominal microsurgery or for manipulations in very small spaces. They reported no robot related morbidity.

Another study by Falcone et al tested the feasibility of robot-assisted laparoscopic microsurgical tubal anastomosis. In this study, 10 patients who had previously undergone tubal sterilization underwent tubal reanastomosis.

They found that the 19 tubes were reanastomosed successfully and 17 of the 19 were still patent 6 weeks postoperatively. There have been 5 pregnancies in this group so far. Margossian and Falcone also studied the feasibility of robotic surgery in complex gynecologic surgeries in pigs. In this study, 10 pigs underwent adnexal surgery or hysterectomy using the Zeus robotic system.

They found that robotic surgery is safe and feasible for complex gynecologic surgeries. In yet another study by Marescaux et al, the safety and feasibility of telerobotic laparoscopic cholecystectomy was tested in a prospective study of 25 patients undergoing the procedure. Twenty-four of the 25 laparoscopic cholecystectomies were performed successfully, and one was converted to a traditional laparoscopic procedure.

This study concluded that robotic laparoscopic cholecystectomy is safe and feasible. Another study by Abbou et al found telerobotic laparoscopic radical prostatectomy to be feasible and safe with dramatically enhanced dexterity.

One of the areas where robotic surgery is transforming medicine the most and one of the areas generating the most excitement is minimally invasive cardiac surgery. Several groups have been developing robotic procedures that expand laparoscopic techniques into this previously unexplored territory with encouraging results. Prasad et al successfully constructed left internal thoracic artery (LITA) to left anterior descending (LAD) artery anastomoses on 17 of 19 patients with the use of a robotic system.

They conclude that robotically assisted endoscopic coronary bypass surgery showed favorable short-term outcomes with no adverse events and found robotic assistance is an enabling technology that allows surgeons to perform endoscopic coronary anastomoses. Damiano et al conducted a multicenter clinical trial of robotically assisted coronary artery bypass grafting. In this study 32 patients scheduled for primary coronary surgery underwent endoscopic anastomosis of the LITA to LAD. Two-month follow-up revealed a graft patency of 93%. This study concluded that robotic assisted coronary bypass grafting is feasible. In another study, Mohr et al used the Da Vinci system to perform coronary artery bypass grafting on 131 patients and mitral valve repair on 17 patients. They used the robot to perform left internal thoracic artery takedown, LITA-LAD anastomosis in standard sternotomy bypass, and total endoscopic coronary artery bypass grafting LITA-LAD anastomosis on the arrested heart and the beating heart. They found that robotic systems could be used safely in selected patients to perform endoscopic cardiac surgery. Internal thoracic artery takedown is an effective modality, and total endoscopic bypass on an arrested heart is feasible but does not offer a major benefit to the minimally invasive direct approach because cardiopulmonary bypass is still required. Their study suggests that robotic systems have not yet advanced far enough to perform endoscopic closed chest beating heart bypass grafting despite some technical success in 2 of 8 patients. In addition, robotic endoscopic mitral valve repair was successful in 14 of 17 patients. In contrast, several groups in Europe have successfully performed closed-chest, off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting using an endoscopic stabilizer. Kappert and Cichon et al performed 37 off-pump totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass (TECAB) on a beating heart with the Da Vinci system and an endoscopic stabilizer. In this series, they reported a 3.4% rate of conversion to median sternotomy. They concluded that their results promote optimism about further development of TECAB. Another study by Boehm and Reichenspurner et al using a similar stabilizer with the Zeus system had similar results and conclusions about TECAB. Interestingly, a study by Cisowski and Drzewiecki in Poland compared percutaneous stenting with endoscopic coronary artery bypass grafting in patients with single-vessel disease. In this series of 100 patients percutaneous stenting resulted in restenosis in 6% and 12% at 1 and 6 months, respectively, compared with 2% at 6 months in the endoscopic bypass group.

Another use for robotic systems being investigated is pediatric laparoscopic surgery. Currently, laparoscopic pediatric surgery is limited by an inability to perform precise anastomoses of 2 to 15 millimeters. Although laparoscopic techniques may be used to treat infants with intestinal atresia, choledochal cysts, biliary atresia, and esophageal atresia, it is not the standard approach because of the technical difficulties. To evaluate the feasibility of robotic systems in pediatric minimally invasive surgery, Hollands and Dixey developed a study where enteroenterostomy, hepaticojejunostomy, and portoentorostomy were performed on piglets. They found all the procedure to be technically feasible with the Zeus robotic system. The study concludes that robotic-assisted laparoscopic techniques are technically feasible in pediatric surgery and may be of benefit in treating various disorders in term and preterm infants. More recently, Hollands and Dixey devised a study using 10 piglets to develop the procedure and evaluate the feasibility of performing a robot-assisted esophagoesophagostomy. In this study, robot-assisted and thoracoscopic approaches were evaluated and compared for leak, narrowing, caliber, mucosal approximation, as well as anesthesia, operative, anastomotic, and robotic set-up times. They found that the robot-assisted approach is feasible. They also discerned no statistically significant difference between the 2 approaches based on the above variables.

Despite many studies showing the feasibility of robotic surgery, there is still much to be desired. More high-quality clinical trials need to be performed and much more experience needs to be obtained before the full potential of these systems can be realized.

Disadvantages of robotic surgery

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 20:56:00 +0000

There are several disadvantages to these systems. First of all, robotic surgery is a new technology and its uses and efficacy have not yet been well established. To date, mostly studies of feasibility have been conducted, and almost no long-term follow up studies have been performed. Many procedures will also have to be redesigned to optimize the use of robotic arms and increase efficiency. However, time will most likely remedy these disadvantages.

Another disadvantage of these systems is their cost. With a price tag of a million dollars, their cost is nearly prohibitive. Whether the price of these systems will fall or rise is a matter of conjecture. Some believe that with improvements in technology and as more experience is gained with robotic systems, the price will fall. Others believe that improvements in technology, such as haptics, increased processor speeds, and more complex and capable software will increase the cost of these systems.Also at issue is the problem of upgrading systems; how much will hospitals and healthcare organizations have to spend on upgrades and how often? In any case, many believe that to justify the purchase of these systems they must gain widespread multidisciplinary use.

Another disadvantage is the size of these systems. Both systems have relatively large footprints and relatively cumbersome robotic arms. This is an important disadvantage in today’s already crowded-operating rooms. It may be difficult for both the surgical team and the robot to fit into the operating room. Some suggest that miniaturizing the robotic arms and instruments will address the problems associated with their current size. Others believe that larger operating suites with multiple booms and wall mountings will be needed to accommodate the extra space requirements of robotic surgical systems. The cost of making room for these robots and the cost of the robots themselves make them an especially expensive technology.

One of the potential disadvantages identified is a lack of compatible instruments and equipment. Lack of certain instruments increases reliance on tableside assistants to perform part of the surgery. This, however, is a transient disadvantage because new technologies have and will develop to address these shortcomings.

Most of the disadvantages identified will be remedied with time and improvements in technology. Only time will tell if the use of these systems justifies their cost. If the cost of these systems remains high and they do not reduce the cost of routine procedures, it is unlikely that there will be a robot in every operating room and thus unlikely that they will be used for routine surgeries

Advantages of robot assisted surgery

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 20:53:00 +0000

The advantages of these systems are many because they overcome many of the obstacles of laparoscopic surgery . They increase dexterity, restore proper hand-eye coordination and an ergonomic position, and improve visualization. In addition, these systems make surgeries that were technically difficult or unfeasible previously, now possible.

These robotic systems enhance dexterity in several ways. Instruments with increased degrees of freedom greatly enhance the surgeon’s ability to manipulate instruments and thus the tissues. These systems are designed so that the surgeons’ tremor can be compensated on the end-effector motion through appropriate hardware and software filters. In addition, these systems can scale movements so that large movements of the control grips can be transformed into micro motions inside the patient.

Another important advantage is the restoration of proper hand-eye coordination and an ergonomic position. These robotic systems eliminate the fulcrum effect, making instrument manipulation more intuitive. With the surgeon sitting at a remote, ergonomically designed workstation, current systems also eliminate the need to twist and turn in awkward positions to move the instruments and visualize the monitor.

By most accounts, the enhanced vision afforded by these systems is remarkable. The 3-dimensional view with depth perception is a marked improvement over the conventional laparoscopic camera views. Also to one’s advantage is the surgeon’s ability to directly control a stable visual field with increased magnification and maneuverability.

All of this creates images with increased resolution that, combined with the increased degrees of freedom and enhanced dexterity, greatly enhances the surgeon’s ability to identify and dissect anatomic structures as well as to construct microanastomoses.

Current position of robotic surgical system

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 20:52:00 +0000

Robotic Surgical System

Today, many robots and robot enhancements are being researched and developed. Schurr et al at Eberhard Karls University’s section for minimally invasive surgery have developed a master-slave manipulator system that they call ARTEMIS. This system consists of 2 robotic arms that are controlled by a surgeon at a control console. Dario et al at the

MiTech laboratory of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Italy have developed a prototype miniature robotic system for computer-enhanced colonoscopy. This system provides the same functions as conventional colonoscopy systems but it does so with an inchworm-like locomotion using vacuum suction.

By allowing the endoscopist to teleoperate or directly supervise this endoscope and with the functional integration of endoscopic tools, they believe this system is not only feasible but may expand the applications of endoluminal diagnosis and surgery. Several other laboratories, including the authors’, are designing and developing systems and models for reality-based haptic feedback in minimally invasive surgery and also combining visual servoing with haptic feedback for robot-assisted surgery.

In addition to Prodoc, ROBODOC and the systems mentioned above several other robotic systems have been commercially developed and approved by the FDA for general surgical use. These include the AESOP system (Computer Motion Inc., Santa Barbara, CA), a voice-activated robotic endoscope, and the comprehensive master-slave surgical robotic systems, Da Vinci (Intuitive Surgical Inc., Mountain View, CA) and Zeus (Computer Motion Inc., Santa Barbara, CA).

The da Vinci and Zeus systems are similar in their capabilities but different in their approaches to robotic surgery. Both systems are comprehensive master-slave surgical robots with multiple arms operated remotely from a console with video assisted visualization and computer enhancement. In the da Vinci system , which evolved from the telepresence machines developed for NASA and the US Army, there are essentially 3 components: a vision cart that holds a dual light source and dual 3-chip cameras, a master console where the operating surgeon sits, and a moveable cart, where 2 instrument arms and the camera arm are mounted.

The camera arm contains dual cameras and the image generated is 3-dimensional. The master console consists of an image processing computer that generates a true 3-dimensional image with depth of field; the view port where the surgeon views the image; foot pedals to control electrocautery, camera focus, instrument/camera arm clutches, and master control grips that drive the servant robotic arms at the patient’s side.The instruments are cable driven and provide 7 degrees of freedom. This system displays its 3-dimensional image above the hands of the surgeon so that it gives the surgeon the illusion that the tips of the instruments are an extension of the control grips, thus giving the impression of being at the surgical site.

Background and history of Surgical robots

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 20:48:00 +0000

Since 1921 when Czech playwright Karel Capek introduced the notion and coined the term robot in his play Rossom’s Universal Robots, robots have taken on increasingly more importance both in imagination and reality.

Robot, taken from the Czech robota, meaning forced labor, has evolved in meaning from dumb machines that perform menial, repetitive tasks to the highly intelligent anthropomorphic robots of popular culture. Although today’s robots are still unintelligent machines, great strides have been made in expanding their utility. Today robots are used to perform highly specific, highly precise, and dangerous tasks in industry and research previously not possible with a human work force.

Robots are routinely used to manufacture microprocessors used in computers, explore the deep sea, and work in hazardous environment to name a few. Robotics, however, has been slow to enter the field of medicine.

The lack of crossover between industrial robotics and medicine, particularly surgery, is at an end. Surgical robots have entered the field in force. Robotic telesurgical machines have already been used to perform transcontinental cholecystectomy.Voice-activated robotic arms routinely maneuver endoscopic cameras, and complex master slave robotic systems are currently FDA approved, marketed, and used for a variety of procedures. It remains to be seen, however, if history will look on the development of robotic surgery as a profound paradigm shift or as a bump in the road on the way to something even more important.

Paradigm shift or not, the origin of surgical robotics is rooted in the strengths and weaknesses of its predecessors. Minimally invasive surgery began in 1987 with the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Since then, the list of procedures performed laparoscopically has grown at a pace consistent with improvements in technology and the technical skill of surgeons.The advantages of minimally invasive surgery are very popular among surgeons, patients, and insurance companies. Incisions are smaller, the risk of infection is less, hospital stays are shorter, if necessary at all, and convalescence is significantly reduced. Many studies have shown that laparoscopic procedures result in decreased hospital stays, a quicker return to the workforce, decreased pain, better cosmesis, and better postoperative immune function. As attractive as minimally invasive surgery is, there are several limitations. Some of the more prominent limitations involve the technical and mechanical nature of the equipment. Inherent in current laparoscopic equipment is a loss of haptic feedback (force and tactile), natural hand-eye coordination, and dexterity. Moving the laparoscopic instruments while watching a 2-dimensional video monitor is somewhat counterintuitive. One must move the instrument in the opposite direction from the desired target on the monitor to interact with the site of interest. Hand-eye coordination is therefore compromised. Some refer to this as the fulcrum effect. Current instruments have restricted degrees of motion; most have 4 degrees of motion, whereas the human wrist and hand have 7 degrees of motion. There is also a decreased sense of touch that makes tissue manipulation more heavily dependent on visualization. Finally, physiologic tremors in the surgeon are readily transmitted through the length of rigid instruments. These limitations make more delicate dissections and anastomoses difficult if not impossible.The motivation to develop surgical robots is rooted in the desire to overcome the limitations of current laparoscopic technologies and to expand the benefits of minimally invasive surgery.

From their inception, surgical robots have been envisioned to extend the capabilities of human surgeons beyond the limits of conventional laparoscopy. The history of robotics in surgery begins with the Puma 560, a robot used in 1985 by Kwoh et al to perform neurosurgical biopsies with greater precision.Three years later, Davies et al performed a transurethral resection of the prostate using the Puma 560. This system eventually led to the development of PROBOT, a robot designed specifically for transurethral resection of the prostate. While PROBOT was being developed, Integrated Surgical Supplies Ltd. of Sacramento, CA, was developing ROBODOC, a robotic system designed to machine the femur with greater precision in hip replacement surgeries. ROBODOC was the first surgical robot approved by the FDA.

Also in the mid-to-late 1980s a group of researchers at the National Air and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center working on virtual reality became interested in using this information to develop telepresence surgery.This concept of telesurgery became one of the main driving forces behind the development of surgical robots. In the early 1990s, several of the scientists from the NASA-Ames team joined the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). Working with SRI’s other robotocists and virtual reality experts, these scientists developed a dexterous telemanipulator for hand surgery. One of their main design goals was to give the surgeon the sense of operating directly on the patient rather than from across the room. While these robots were being developed, general surgeons and endoscopists joined the development team and realized the potential these systems had in ameliorating the limitations of conventional laparoscopic surgery.

The US Army noticed the work of SRI, and it became interested in the possibility of decreasing wartime mortality by “bringing the surgeon to the wounded soldier—through telepresence.”¹ With funding from the US Army, a system was devised whereby a wounded soldier could be loaded into a vehicle with robotic surgical equipment and be operated on remotely by a surgeon at a nearby Mobile Advanced Surgical Hospital (MASH). This system, it was hoped, would decrease wartime mortality by preventing wounded soldiers from exsanguinating before they reached the hospital. This system has been successfully demonstrated on animal models but has not yet been tested or implemented for actual battlefield casualty care.

Several of the surgeons and engineers working on surgical robotic systems for the Army eventually formed commercial ventures that lead to the introduction of robotics to the civilian surgical community. Notably, Computer Motion, Inc. of Santa Barbara, CA, used seed money provided by the Army to develop the Automated Endoscopic System for Optimal Positioning (AESOP), a robotic arm controlled by the surgeon voice commands to manipulate an endoscopic camera. Shortly after AESOP was marketed, Integrated Surgical Systems (now Intuitive Surgical) of Mountain View, CA, licensed the SRI Green Telepresence Surgery system. This system underwent extensive redesign and was reintroduced as the Da Vinci surgical system. Within a year, Computer Motion put the Zeus system into production.

Social anxiety disorder often called social phobia

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 23:08:00 +0000

Social anxiety disorder vs. often called social phobia

Social anxiety disorder is also can be called as social phobia and it is known to all. It is a completely a matter of behaving in an embarrassing way whilst you talk or meet with other people, especially strangers. It can greatly affect your life. Treatment works well in many cases. Treatment options include cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and medication, usually with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant.

What is social anxiety disorder?

Social anxiety disorder is sometimes called social phobia. Social anxiety disorder is not just shyness; it is more severe than this. With social anxiety disorder you get very anxious about what other people may think of you, or how they may judge you. As a result you have great difficulty in social situations, which can affect your day-to-day life.

Symptoms include:

A marked fear or dread of social situations. You fear that you will act in an embarrassing or humiliating way and that other people will think you are stupid, inadequate, foolish, etc.
In some cases the fear is only for certain situations where you will be looked at by others, even if they are known to you. For example, you become very anxious if you have to 'perform' in some way, such as giving a talk or presentation, taking part in a discussion at work or school, etc. But, you are OK in informal social gatherings
In other cases the fear occurs for most social situations where you may meet strangers. This can even include eating in public places, as you fear you may act in an embarrassing way.
You may have weeks of anxiety prior to a social event or an event where you have to 'perform'.
You avoid such situations as much as possible.
If you go to the feared situation:
- You become very anxious and distressed.
- You may develop some physical symptoms of anxiety. These may include a fast heart rate, palpitations, shaking (tremor), sweating, feeling sick, chest pain, headaches, stomach pains, a 'knot in the stomach', and fast breathing.
- You may blush easily.
- You may have an intense desire to get away from the situation.
- You may even have a panic attack (see separate leaflet called Panic Attack and Panic Disorder)
- However, you will usually know that your fear and anxiety are excessive and unreasonable.

Social anxiety disorder can greatly affect your life. You may not do as well at school or work as you might have done, as you tend to avoid any group work, discussions, etc. You may find it hard to get, or keep, a job. This may be because you feel unable to cope with the social aspects needed for many jobs, such as meeting with people. You may become socially isolated and find it difficult to make friends.

What causes social anxiety disorder?

The cause is probably a combination of your genetic 'makeup' which makes you more prone to this condition, and bad experiences as a child. In one study about half of affected people said their phobia began after one memorable embarrassing experience. The other half said it had been present 'as long as they could remember'.

How is it diagnosed?

You must have three features to be diagnosed with social anxiety disorder:

Your symptoms must not be the result of some other mental health condition (for example, a delusion).
You feel anxious entirely or mostly in social situations.
One of your main symptoms will be the avoidance of social situations.

As well as discussing your problems your doctor or practice nurse may use a short questionnaire to get extra information on how severely you are affected.

Who has social anxiety disorder?

It is one of the most common mental health conditions. As many as 1 in 10 adults have social anxiety disorder to some degree. It usually develops in the teenage years and is usually a lifelong problem unless treated. Just over twice as many women as men are affected.

What are the treatment options for social anxiety disorder?

Cognitive and behavioral therapy

These, if available in your area, can work well for social anxiety disorder:

Cognitive therapy is based on the idea that certain ways of thinking can trigger, or fuel, certain mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. The therapist helps you to understand your current thought patterns - in particular, to identify any harmful, unhelpful, and false ideas or thoughts which you have that can make you anxious (or depressed). The aim is then to change your ways of thinking to avoid these ideas. Also, to help your thought patterns to be more realistic and helpful. Therapy is usually done in weekly sessions of about 50 minutes each, for several weeks. You have to take an active part, and are given homework between sessions. For example, you may be asked to keep a diary of your thoughts which occur when you become anxious or develop physical symptoms of anxiety.
Behavioural therapy aims to change any behaviours which are harmful or not helpful. For example, with phobias your behaviour or response to the feared object is harmful, and the therapist aims to help you to change this. Various techniques are used, depending on the condition and circumstances. As with cognitive therapy, several sessions are needed for a course of therapy.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a mixture of the two where you may benefit from changing both thoughts and behaviours. (Note: cognitive and behavioural therapies do not look into the events of the past. They deal with, and aim to change, your current thought processes and/or behaviours.) See separate leaflet calledCognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for more details.

Thoracic Patient Story you need to know

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 21:15:00 +0000

For Beverly resident Cynthia McPherson, 49, the coming of winter guaranteed not only slush and snow but also her yearly battle with pneumonia and breathing trouble.

For more than 10 years she battled constant wheezing, horrible coughs, bronchitis and upper respiratory infections. “It got so that I knew when it crossed from a cold into pneumonia and I’d go to my doctor or the emergency room for X-rays and medication,” says McPherson.And though she was treated with antibiotics, her trouble never really went away. “I was always wheezing even in the summer; I thought I had asthma.”

What McPherson didn’t know was that a cancerous lesion was slowly growing on her right bronchi, one of the main airways in her lungs. As the growth got bigger, it started to block her airway, causing the repeat infections and wheezing.

During a particularly bad cold in the winter of 2005, McPherson went to the emergency room at Beverly Hospital to have a chest X-ray, which she knew would diagnose her latest bout with pneumonia. Upon reviewing her X-ray, the doctor treating her also ordered a CT scan of her chest and found a mass in her bronchi. Assuming it might be a mucus plug, he referred her for a bronchoscopy, a test where a lung specialist threads a very small tube with a tiny camera down into the airways to examine the lungs.McPherson was about to get the surprise of her life.

“When the pulmonologist told me I had a cancerous tumor in my lung, I couldn’t believe it. I’m not a smoker. Then he said because of the location of the tumor I would need my lung removed,” she explains. However, he did offer her a ray of hope. “He said if there was anyone who could try to save my lung, it was NSMC’s Dr. Dean Donahue.”

Dr. Donahue, a thoracic surgeon who practices at both Massachusetts General Hospital and NSMC, soon explained the complexities of the procedure to McPherson. Drawing on his specialized expertise as a lung transplant surgeon, Donahue thought he might be able to use an intricate technique to cut out the section with the tumor and reattach the remaining airway and lung. “I was still so stunned by the diagnosis that the complexity of the procedure didn’t even hit me,” said McPherson. “I even asked Dr. Donahue if I could have the procedure on a Friday, so I could recover over the weekend and go back to work the next week,” laughs McPherson.

Once the reality set in, McPherson, a single motherof four children, started to worry about her family. Her oldest son, now a third-generation Beverly firefighter, was about to be deployed to Iraq with the Marines. She didn’t want him or her three younger daughters to worry about her. “Though I was initially frightened, Dr. Donahue and his nurse Julie Garrity, R.N., and the whole office staff reassured me at every turn. Dr. Donahue even told me to call him 24/7 if I or my family had any questions. I felt I was part of their family,” she says.

After the eight-hour surgery and three days at NSMC Salem Hospital, McPherson went home to recover. The tumor was encapsulated and hadn’t spread to any other sections of her lung, so she was able to keep her lung and avoid chemotherapy or radiation to kill the cancer. Now breathing easy, McPherson is walking up to six miles a week without difficulty. “When I told friends about my cancer, they immediately expected that I was going to go to one of the big hospitals in Boston for treatment,” says McPherson. “But Dr. Donahue is MGH and he brought Boston to me. I’m alive and breathing because of it,” says McPherson.

Patient Story

The Newest Standard of Care

70-year-old Barbara Schapero of Peabody was bothered by a nagging dry cough, so she went to see her primary care physician to have it checked out. X-rays and a CT scan showed an abnormality in her left lung that turned out to be cancer. Despite a career as a nurse, Schapero reacted as any patient would when she got the news. "I lost my objectivity immediately and feared for my life," says the married mother of four and grandmother of seven. Because the tumor showed no signs of having spread and was caught relatively early, Schapero was a candidate for surgery. Dean Donahue, M.D., Chief of Thoracic Surgery at NSMC Salem Hospital and an attending physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, removed the upper lobe of her left lung.

Barbara's comprehensive post-surgery treatment included a 12-week course of two cancer-fighting drugs based on new research showing that chemotherapy after surgery for lung cancer may reduce the likelihood of a recurrence. Through NSMC's affiliation with Dana-Farber/Partners CancerCare, NSMC Cancer Center is able to stay on top of the latest in research and care, including clinical trials. Today, Schapero credits her health to the care she received through North Shore Medical Center. "I feel so fortunate to have found these two wonderful doctors," she says, "and I'm so glad I was able to stay close to home when I received my care."

World's Best Top 9 Innovative Companies in Robotic System

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 11:20:00 +0000

Top Robotic Industries enlisted bellow

iRobot

For maximizing doctor-patient face-time. Drawing on years of experience with its self-navigating Roomba vacuums, last year iRobot unveiled RP-VITA, a roving robotic communications portal that’s already making the rounds at various hospitals. The bot, which can be controlled remotely with a tablet, uses sensors to find its way to a given patient, and onboard cameras and displays allow for face-to-face interaction with doctors. While iRobot is already a powerhouse in the home and on the battlefield, its first medical automaton should be a shot in the arm for healthcare robotics.

Founded: 1990

CEO: Colin Angle

Headquarters: Bedford, MA

Founders: Rodney Brooks, Helen Greiner

Company Site: http://www.irobot.com/

Mazor Robotics

For turning robots into brain surgeons. While global interest in surgical robots has grabbed headlines and reeled in staggering profits for companies like Intuitive Surgical, Israel-based Mazor Robotics has been quietly pushing the technology into the uncharted territory of neurosurgery. The company has pioneered the use of 3D imaging to immediately confirm spinal surgery results, and its Renaissance system, which in January had its 20th hospital installation in the United States, is the first to secure FDA approval for brain procedures.

Headquarters: Caesarea

Founded: 2001

Founders: Moshe Shoham, Eli Zehavi

Company Site: http://www.mazorrobotics.com

Recon Robotics

For building an army of throwable spybots. Last year, French commandos tossed the Recon Scout XT into an armed standoff with a spree-killer. The stealthy, 1.2-pound barbell-shaped microbot confirmed his location, and the suspect was killed, without any other casualties. Since then, Recon Robotics has sold another 1,000 bots to the U.S. Army, while also introducing the next generation of dirt-simple, indispensable scouts, the Throwbot XT, which can transmit audio as well as infrared video.

Headquarters: Edina MN

Founded: 2006

Founders: Mary Wilson

Company Site: http://www.reconrobotics.com

SpaceX

For getting to the space station, and back, with a robot spacecraft. SpaceX made history when its Dragon capsule docked with the International Space Station, a milestone for the burgeoning commercial space industry. Less talked about, though, was its robotic triumph: The Dragon is an autonomous vehicle, and the company plans to keep it largely self-piloted, even if, in the coming years, it’s approved to ferry passengers to and from the station.

Headquarters: Hawthorne, CA

Founded: 2002

Founders: Elon Musk

Company Site: www.spacex.com

Lockheed Martin

For flying robot pilots through unfriendly skies. Like other defense contractors, Lockheed Martin develops its share of death-dealing hardware. But the K-MAX unmanned (and unarmed) chopper, developed jointly with the Kaman Corporation, has distinguished itself in more peaceful duties, too, delivering more than 2 million pounds of food, gear, and other supplies to U.S. Marines in Afghanistan since its deployment in late 2011. It will continue to keep human pilots out of the crosshairs, as the DoD has extended its deployment through March, with an option to continue through September.

Headquarters: Bethesda, MD, Fort Worth, MD

Founded: 1995

Founders: Malcolm Loughead, Allan Haines Loughead, Genn L. Martin

Company Site: www.lockheedmartin.com

PV Kraftwerker

For harnessing machines to harness the power of the sun. With the upfront costs of solar power slowing its widespread adoption, PV-Kraftwerker’s Momo robot is a glimpse of brighter days ahead: when robots will install entire solar fields with little to no human assistance. For now, Momo’s skills are limited—it merely carries and positions the heavier components—but the company has been hired to create a more self-sufficient version that would set up panels in the irradiated surroundings of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant.

For details search on www.google.com

Boston Dynamics

For making humanoid robots with a purpose. While Honda’s Asimo still makes the occasional public appearance, dancing and bowing for our amusement, the anthropomorphic robots at Boston Dynamics are busting their shiny asses. The treadmill-running, push-up-pumping PETMAN, originally built to test protective military gear, has become the humanoid platform for the Pentagon’s most ambitious robotics challenge yet, which aims to create disaster-response bots that can drive cars, use hand-tools, and otherwise rescue our lesser species.

Founded: 1992

Founders: Marc Raibert

Company Site: www.bostondynamics.com

Ekso Bionics

For bringing wearable robots to market. The Ekso Bionics exoskeleton is life-changing technology: a pair of mechanical legs that gauge the wearer’s intentions and move entirely under their own power, with none of the device’s 45 pounds borne by the user. But keep the Iron Man fantasies in check—this system assists, rather than augments, providing a robotic, bipedal alternative to wheelchairs. Its latest version, which hit the market last year, includes new walking modes for improved rehabilition and a wireless usage monitor.

For details click- http://www.eksobionics.com

Seegrid

For proving that bot-driven forklifts aren't as scary as they sound. Amazon’s $775 million acquisition of Kiva Systems last year signaled an unprecedented shift toward the fully automated distribution center. But in contrast to Kiva, which makes robotic warehouses that are completely retrofitted with machine swarms, Seegrid takes existing industrial trucks—from pallet-movers to forklifts—equips them with proprietary sensors and hardware, and unleashes them as robotic heavy-lifters in existing warehouses, where they’re smart enough to maneuver around their more fragile colleagues.

Address: 216 RIDC Park West Drive, Coraopolis, PA 15108, United States

Phone:(877) 733-4743

Hours: Open today · 8:00 am – 5:00 pm

Web:

www.seegrid.com

Robotic Industries

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 10:27:00 +0000

Welcome to our updated site of Robotic Industries world-wide.

What is a Thoracic Surgeon?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 28 Dec 2014 13:27:00 +0000

A thoracic surgeon is a medical doctor who performs operations on the heart, lungs, esophagus, and other organs in the chest. This also includes surgeons who can be called cardiothoracic surgeons, cardiovascular surgeons, general thoracic surgeons, and congenital heart surgeons.

What kind of training is required to become a Thoracic Surgeon?
Thoracic surgeons have to graduate from medical school and most commonly will go on to complete a five-year general surgery residency. After this they must successfully matriculate through an approved cardiothoracic surgery residency program for either two or three years. Some thoracic surgeons choose to do additional training in a sub-specialized area but this training is largely optional, except for congenital heart surgery.

What does it mean to be a board certified Thoracic Surgeon?
The American Board of Thoracic Surgery (ABTS) maintains standards for the practice of thoracic surgery in the public interest. Thoracic surgeons who have completed approved residency training, hold a full and unrestricted license to practice medicine in the United States, and maintain an ethical standing in the profession are eligible for board certification. Candidates must then pass both a written examination that is designed to test a broad range of knowledge in all areas of thoracic surgery. Upon successful completion of the written examination, candidates are eligible for and must pass an oral examination that tests knowledge, judgment and the integration of these skills in clinical practice. Once successful in these pursuits, a thoracic surgeon is “board certified”. In order to keep this certification, the maintenance of certification process is required to demonstrate lifelong learning throughout the thoracic surgeons’ career. There is a separate subspecialty certificate for congenital heart surgery.

Are there different kinds of Thoracic Surgeons? What is the difference between a Thoracic and Cardiothoracic Surgeon?
All thoracic surgeons have the same general training and are certified by the same specialty board, except for congenital heart surgeons who have a sub-specialty certificate in addition to the ABTS certification. Some surgeons choose to focus their clinical practice in certain areas of thoracic surgery and can be referred to differently. A cardiac or cardiovascular surgeon will focus on the heart and great vessels. General thoracic surgeons treat diseases of the lungs, esophagus, chest wall, and mediastinum. Congenital heart surgeons operate on infants and children with heart disease. Cardiothoracic surgeon is the most inclusive term used to describe the specialty, irrespective of a particular surgeon’s area of focus and expertise, and can be used interchangeably with the term thoracic surgeon.

What diseases does a Thoracic Surgeon treat?
Thoracic surgeons operate on diseases that occur in the organs inside the chest, and in the bony structures and tissues that form the chest cavity. Coronary artery disease is one of the most common diseases treated by cardiac and cardiovascular surgeons. General thoracic surgeons treat a lot of lung cancer and diseases of the esophagus. Congenital heart surgeons care for babies and children with holes between the heart chambers or abnormal connections within the heart. Listed below are some examples of diseases treated by thoracic surgeons.

A cardiac or cardiovascular surgeon could treat:
- Coronary artery disease or blockages of the arteries in the heart
- Blockages in one of the heart valve(s)
- Leaking heart valve(s)
- Abnormal enlargement or aneurysms of the large arteries in the chest
- Heart failure
- Atrial fibrillation

A general thoracic surgeon could treat:
- Lung cancer
- Severe emphysema
- Cancer of the esophagus
- Gastroesophageal reflux disease
- Hiatal hernias
- Swallowing disorders such as achalasia
- Excess sweating, usually of the upper extremity called hyperhydrosis

A congenital heart surgeon could treat:
- Atrial septal defects
- Ventricular septal defects
- Coarctation of the aorta
- Hypoplastic left or right heart syndrome
- Transposition of the great arteries

What kind of operations does a Thoracic Surgeon do?

A cardiac or cardiovascular surgeon could perform:
- Coronary artery bypass surgery
- Valve repair or replacement
- Repair of thoracic aneurysms
- Minimal access cardiac surgery
- Ventricular remodeling
- Heart transplant
- Maze procedure
A general thoracic surgeon could perform:
- Removal of portion(s) of the lung containing cancer, eg, lobectomy, pneumonectomy
- Thoracoscopy or VATS
- Removal of a portion of the esophagus containing cancer and reconstruction of the gastrointestinal tract or esophagogastrectomy
- Laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication
- Laparoscopic Heller myotomy
- Thoracoscopic sympathectomy
- Lung transplant
A congenital heart surgeon could perform:
- Atrial septal defect repair
- Ventricular septal defect repair
- Repair of coartcation of the aorta
- Arterial switch operation
- Norwood operation
- Creation of shunt to the pulmonary artery, e.g., modified Blalock-Taussig shunt, bidirectional Glenn shunt

Do Thoracic Surgeons do procedures other than open operations?
Yes. Some cardiac surgeons also perform percutaneous (through punctures in the groin) interventions to treat aneurysms of the large vessels in the chest. Most general thoracic surgeons also perform bronchoscopy and/or esophagoscopy, drain fluid from the chest with needles, or place catheters or tubes into the chest to drain fluid or air.

How is a Thoracic Surgeon different from a cardiologist or pulmonologist?
A cardiologist will primarily diagnose disorders of the heart and treat them with medication. Cardiologists also perform interventions on the arteries in the heart working through puncture wounds in the groin, but they do not do open surgery.
A pulmonologist will diagnose disorders of the lung and treat them with medication. Some pulmonologists will perform interventions through the airway such as bronchoscopy to diagnose some disorders but again, they do not perform open surgery.

When should I see a Thoracic Surgeon?
Your primary care physician, cardiologist, pulmonologist, or gastroenterologist may send you to a thoracic surgeon if he/she feels that you could benefit from an operation to treat a condition involving the heart, lungs, esophagus, mediastinum, or chest wall.

How can I find a Thoracic Surgeon?
The physician sending you to a thoracic surgeon may recommend a particular surgeon. You can also search for a thoracic surgeon by clicking here.

What can I expect on my first visit?
You will be interviewed and examined by the thoracic surgeon, and if you have had any tests, echocardiograms, X-rays or CT scans done, your thoracic surgeon will review the images and reports. Then, he/she will make a recommendation for the next step in your evaluation and treatment. This includes possible surgery, additional testing, or observing your condition over time.

What is The Society of Thoracic Surgeons?
The Society of Thoracic Surgeons is a not-for-profit organization representing more than 6,700 surgeons, researchers, and allied health professionals worldwide who are dedicated to ensuring the best possible heart, lung, esophageal, and other surgical procedures for the chest. Founded in 1964, the mission of STS is to enhance the ability of cardiothoracic surgeons to provide the highest quality patient care through education, research, and advocacy.

Dry Eyes and LASIK: You may still be a candidate

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 28 Dec 2014 12:08:00 +0000

Dry eyes after LASIK are so common that they occur in about half of all LASIK patients. While the condition usually is temporary and mild, significant numbers of people continue to have dry eyes for months or even years after a procedure.*

But to keep the problem in perspective, many people who seek LASIK already have dry eyes. As an example, contact lens wearers who find their lenses uncomfortable because of dry eyes may investigate LASIK as an alternative because they do not want to wear eyeglasses.

Fortunately, screening for LASIK has led to advances in dry eye detection and treatment. Many people wanting laser vision correction now have the chance of actually solving their pre-existing dry eye problem if it is addressed in the LASIK consultation.

How Does LASIK Cause Dry Eyes?

In certain cases, LASIK and other vision correction procedures can cause dry eyes after they penetrate the eye's surface and reduce corneal nerve sensitivity. When your eye then fails to sense the need for lubrication, inadequate tear production results.

Dry eyes after LASIK can cause both discomfort and less than optimal visual outcomes. For this reason, many eye surgeons now recommend that you use lubricating eye drops or other therapies to help maintain eye moisture. As a precaution, you also may be given treatments to increase eye lubrication in advance of a LASIK procedure even if you don't have any sign of dry eyes.
In some cases where dry eyes are of extra concern, corrective vision procedures that do not involve creating a thin flap on the eye's surface — such as PRK — may be recommended instead of LASIK.

Dry Eye Screening for LASIK Patients

Both the quality and the quantity of tears you produce are factors in the development of dry eyes, which also can affect healing after eye surgery.
Because eye surgeons now increasingly recognize that the best LASIK outcomes may depend on controlling dry eyes, you probably will undergo screening in advance of a procedure.
Various tests for detecting dry eyes include:

Schirmer test: a thin strip of paper placed under the lower eyelid to measure tear production.
Tear breakup time: placement of a small amount of dye on the eye's surface to monitor how tears are distributed and when they "break up" on the eye's surface.
Imaging: keratometers or other instruments that provide a view of the tear film without touching the eye's surface.

While assessing you as a possible candidate for a LASIK procedure, your eye surgeon also may need to determine if you have an underlying condition that might be causing dry eyes.

Who Is Most at Risk of Having Dry Eyes After LASIK?

One Baylor College of Medicine study in Houston noted a significant risk of having dry eyes after LASIK particularly in people with higher degrees of myopia who required deeper removal of corneal tissue to reshape the eye.**
Researchers also found that LASIK generally carries significant risk for dry eyes in people who did not have the problem previously, and that dry eye symptoms persisted in about 25 percent of LASIK patients six months after surgery.
"Dry eye occurs commonly after laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) surgery in patients with no history of dry eye," the Houston investigators said. "The risk of developing dry eye is correlated with the degree of preoperative myopia and the depth of laser treatment. Patients should be counseled about the risk of developing dry eye after LASIK, particularly those with high myopia."
Other causes of dry eye syndrome before or after LASIK include:

Older age, particularly if you are female and have undergone menopause.
Allergy medications (antihistamines), certain blood pressure medications and anti-depressants that can decrease eye moisture.
Autoimmune diseases such as Sjogren's syndrome.
Unusually dry climates or environments, such as a room that is highly heated or air-conditioned.

Again, having dry eyes prior to a LASIK procedure will not automatically eliminate you as a candidate. But your eye surgeon will need to consider the severity of your condition and the possibility of effective treatment before recommending a procedure.

Treatment of Dry Eyes Before and After LASIK

Even if you do have a pre-existing dry eye condition, LASIK surgeons may consider treating you prior to LASIK or other procedures rather than eliminating you as a candidate.

Your eye surgeon also may treat you for dry eyes prior to a LASIK procedure as a precaution, even if your tear production ordinarily is normal.

You may be advised to take flaxseed oil or fish oil orally for several weeks before your vision correction surgery to improve your tear film. You also may need to use lubricating eye drops before and after a LASIK procedure.

Your eye surgeon may recommend prescription eye drops such as cyclosporine (Restasis) that help your body formulate tears. Cyclosporine actually has been found to quicken the recovery of corneal sensitivity after LASIK and thus return the eye to normal moisture.

Other common dry eye remedies include punctal plugs, which block tear drainage channels to increase moisture on the eye, and anti-inflammatory medications such as corticosteroids administered as eye drops.

Preventing Dry Eyes After LASIK

When meeting with your LASIK surgeon during your assessment as a candidate, make sure you mention any eye symptoms that could indicate a dry eye problem, such as a foreign body sensation or eye irritation. Even excessive tearing can indicate that you have dry eyes.

Studies indicate that taking omega-3 fatty acid supplements and eating food containing these "good fats," such as salmon, can help maintain a healthy tear film. Drinking plenty of water also can help keep your body — and your eyes — properly hydrated.

Also, make sure you have a frank discussion with your LASIK surgeon about the possibility of developing dry eyes following a procedure. Ask what specific steps can be taken in case of dry eyes to restore the eye's tear film and comfort until healing is complete.

Dry Eye Syndrome

Dry eye syndrome is caused by a chronic lack of sufficient lubrication and moisture on the surface of the eye.

Its consequences range from subtle but constant irritation to inflammation of the anterior (front) tissues of the eye.

Dry eyes also are described by the medical term, keratitis sicca, which generally means decreased quality or quantity of tears. Keratoconjunctivitis sicca refers to eye dryness affecting both the cornea and the conjunctiva.

Dry Eye Symptoms

Persistent dryness, scratchiness, red eyes and a burning sensation are common symptoms of dry eyes. These symptoms alone may prompt your eye doctor to diagnose dry eye syndrome.

Dry eyes can become red and irritated, causing a feeling of scratchiness.

But sometimes your eye doctor may want to measure the amount of tears in your eyes. A thin strip of filter paper placed under the lower eyelid, called a Schirmer test, is one way to measure tear production.

Another symptom of dry eyes is a "foreign body sensation," which is a feeling that something is in your eye.

And it may seem odd, but dry eye syndrome also can cause watery eyes. This is because dryness on the eye's surface sometimes will overstimulate production of the watery component of your tears as a protective mechanism.

What Causes Dry Eyes?

Tears bathe the eye, washing out dust and debris and keeping the eye moist. They also contain enzymes that neutralize microorganisms that colonize the eye. Tears are essential for good eye health.

Tears are complex, containing many different essential elements, including oils produced by special glands in the eyelids called meibomian glands. These oils prevent evaporation of the tears.

Dry Eye News

Smartphone Use Linked to Dry Eye in Schoolchildren

April 2014 — There might be another cost associated with children using smartphones besides a large monthly bill from the phone company: It could be causing kids to develop dry eye disease at an early age. That's the finding of a new study published in this month's issue of Journal of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus.

Researchers in Korea evaluated risk factors for dry eye disease among schoolchildren who used a variety of video devices, including smartphones. They examined 288 children and classified them as either having dry eyes or having a normal, moist eye surface (control group). Each child completed a questionnaire concerning the types of video devices they commonly used (computer, smartphone and television) and the amount of time they spent using each device.

Among the participants, 28 children (9.7 percent) were diagnosed as having dry eyes, and 260 children (90.3 percent) comprised the control group. Smartphone use was more common in the dry eyes group than the control group (71 percent vs. 50 percent), and increased daily duration of smartphone use was associated with increased risk of dry eye disease, as was the total hours per day spent using all video devices combined.

One interesting finding is that increased duration of computer use and television viewing measured separately did not increase the risk of dry eye disease.
The study authors concluded that smartphone use is an important dry eye disease risk factor in children, and that parents should monitor the amount of time their children spend using video displays, especially smartphones, on a daily basis. — G.H.

In dry eye syndrome, the lacrimal gland or associated glands near the eye don't produce enough tears, or dysfunction of the meibomian glands reduces oil output, leading to excessive evaporation of the tears. This is called evaporative dry eye and is now considered to be the primary cause or a contributing factor of most cases of dry eye.

Dry eye syndrome has many causes. It occurs as a part of the natural aging process (especially during menopause in women); as a side effect of many medications, such as antihistamines, antidepressants, certain blood pressure medicines, Parkinson's medications and birth control pills; or because you live in a dry, dusty or windy climate.

If your home or office has air conditioning or a dry heating system, that too can dry out your eyes. Another cause is insufficient blinking, such as when you're staring at a computer screen all day.

Dry eyes also are a symptom of systemic diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, ocular rosacea or Sjogren's syndrome (a triad of dry eyes, dry mouth and rheumatoid arthritis or lupus).
Long-term contact lens wear is another cause; in fact, dry eyes are the most common complaint among contact lens wearers.

Recent research indicates that contact lens wear and dry eyes can be a vicious cycle. Dry eye syndrome makes contact lenses feel uncomfortable, and evaporation of moisture from contact lenses worsens dry eye symptoms. Newer contact lens materials and lens care products can help reduce contact lens dryness.

Incomplete closure of the eyelids, eyelid disease and a deficiency of the tear-producing glands are other causes.
Tears consist of three essential components:

The outer, oily lipid component
The middle, watery, lacrimal component
The innermost component, consisting of mucous or mucin

Each component of the tear film serves a critical purpose. For example, tear lipids prevent evaporation and increase lubrication, while mucins help anchor the tears to the ocular surface.
Each tear component is produced by a different gland:

The outer oily component is produced by meibomian glands in the eyelids.
The watery component is produced by lacrimal glands located above the outer corner of the eyes.
The inner mucoid component is produced by goblet cells in the conjunctiva.

A problem with any of those sources can result in tear instability and dry eyes.
Dry eye syndrome is more common among women, possibly due to hormonal fluctuations. A recent study also indicates that the risk of dry eyes among men increases with age.
Recent research suggests that smoking, too, can increase your risk of dry eyes.
With increased popularity of cosmetic eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) for improved appearance, dry eye complaints now occasionally are associated with incomplete closure of eyelids following such a procedure.

Dry Eye News

Cities cited in the study included Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Miami. Study subjects in and around Chicago and New York City were three to four times more likely to be diagnosed with dry eye syndrome than those in less urban areas with relatively little air pollution.

Dry Eye Syndrome More Prevalent in Larger Cities

November 2013 — Residents of some of the largest U.S. metro areas now have another item to add to their list of concerns, apart from traffic. Research shows that cities with high levels of air pollution have an increased risk of dry eye syndrome.

Using data from the National Veterans Administrative database, the National Climatic Data Center and National Aeronautics and Space Administration, researchers examined the health records of 606,708 U.S. veterans who had received dry eye syndrome treatment in one of 394 VA eye clinics from July 2006 through July 2011.

Those living in areas with high levels of air pollution had the highest magnitude of increased risk for dry eye syndrome, at an incidence rate ratio of 1.4. Most metropolitan areas showed relatively high prevalence of dry eye syndrome (17-21 percent) and high levels of air pollution.
In addition, the risk of dry eye syndrome was 13 percent higher in zip codes in high altitude areas. — T.M.

Dry Eye Disease High Among Office Computer Users

August 2013 — More than 75 percent of women who routinely use a computer at work may suffer from dry eye disease (DED), according to a new study.

Researchers in Japan investigated the tear function and prevalence of dry eye signs and symptoms among office workers who routinely use a computer on the job. Findings for 561 office workers (average age 43.3 years) were included in the study results. Participants completed questionnaires and underwent dry eye testing.

The percentage of female computer users with "definite or probable" DED was 76.5 percent; among male workers, it was 60.2 percent. Risk factors for dry eye included being over 30 and using a computer more than eight hours per day.
The study authors concluded dry eye disease is prevalent among young to middle-aged Japanese VDT users and that measures to reduce the adverse effects of computer use on the eye's surface may improve public health and quality of life for office workers.
A report of the study appeared on the website of the American Journal of Ophthalmology in July.

Reading More Slowly? Maybe It's Due to Your Dry Eyes

February 2013 — Discomfort and redness aren't the only symptoms of dry eyes. Reading speed can slow down, too.
This is according to a study that measured reading speed and contrast sensitivity among 52 adult dry eye sufferers and a 20-member control group.

The study showed that contrast sensitivity was not significantly different across the groups, but reading speed was. And reading rates decreased as the severity of the dry eye disease increased.
Researchers concluded that reading speed could be a measure of treatment benefit for dry eye sufferers. A report of the study appeared in Optometry & Vision Science in January.

How Common Are Dry Eyes?

Dry eyes and dry eye symptoms are very common, particularly among older adults. And a recent consumer survey commissioned by Allergan suggests dry eyes are even more prevalent than previously believed.
The survey found:

48 percent of adult Americans regularly experience dry eye symptoms.
42 percent of women age 45 to 54 who have dry eye symptoms report blurred vision associated with the condition.
Women more frequently than men report having difficulty using a computer due to dry eye symptoms (62 vs. 44 percent).
43 percent of adults with dry eye symptoms say they experience difficulty reading due to their symptoms.
Among adults age 55 and older, 30 percent of men and 19 percent of women say they have experienced dry eye symptoms for more than 10 years.
19 percent of adults say they use over-the-counter eye drops at least five times per week to treat dry eye symptoms.
63 percent of adults who use non-prescription eye drops to treat dry eyes say the drops are not effective or only somewhat effective in managing their symptoms.

The survey also found that though dry eyes cause problems for nearly half of adult Americans, many people fail to seek professional help for dry eye symptoms: 69 percent of respondents who experienced symptoms said they had not visited an eye care professional for dry eye treatment.
The Allergan Dry Eye Survey was conducted online in March 2011 by Harris Interactive, with 2,411 adults (age 18 and older) responding.

Treatment for Dry Eyes

Dry eye syndrome is a chronic and typically progressive condition that may not be completely curable (depending on the cause). But the accompanying dryness, scratchiness and burning can be managed. Because dry eyes can be caused by many different things, a variety of treatment approaches are used.
Eye drops and other lubricants. Your eye care practitioner may prescribe artificial tears, which are lubricating eye drops that may alleviate the dry, scratchy feeling. Some artificial tears address specific tear deficiencies, such as lack of sufficient lipids.

Left: Artificial tears help dry eyes feel better; don't confuse them with formulas that just reduce redness. Salmon is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, which may reduce your risk for dry eyes. Sardine, herring and cod liver oils are even better, or try a supplement.

Prescription eye drops called Restasis (Allergan) go one step further: they help your body produce more tears by reducing inflammation associated with dry eye syndrome.

Another option for dry eye treatment is called Lacrisert, a tiny insert filled with a lubricating ingredient (hydroxypropyl cellulose). The insert is placed just inside the lower eyelid, where it continuously releases lubrication for the eye throughout the day.

Sometimes people use eye drops that are advertised to "get the red out" to treat their dry eyes. While these drops can reduce or eliminate eye redness temporarily, they may or may not be effective at lubricating your eyes, depending on the formulation.

Also, your eyes can develop a tolerance to the eye-whitening agents (vasoconstrictors) in these drops, which can cause even more redness over time. Redness-relieving eye drops can cause other adverse effects as well, especially if you use them too often.

If you wear contact lenses, be aware that many eye drops, especially artificial tears, cannot be used while your contacts are in your eyes. You'll need to remove them before using the drops and wait 15 minutes or even longer (check the label) before reinserting your contact lenses.

If your eye dryness is mild, then contact lens rewetting drops may be sufficient to make your eyes feel better, but the effect usually is only temporary.
Check the label on any eye drops you use, or better yet, check with your optometrist or ophthalmologist before buying any over-the-counter eye drops. It will probably save you a lot of money, because he or she will know which formulas are most effective and long-lasting and which ones are not, as well as which eye drops will work with your contact lenses.

Blocked meibomian glands. Meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) is now recognized as a primary cause of or contributor to most cases of dry eye. LipiFlow treatment (TearScience) is an in-office procedure that clears blocked meibomian glands and restores normal function.
Some practitioners may recommend warm compresses applied to the eyes, followed by manual expression of the meibomian glands to treat MGD and evaporative dry eye.

Your environment. If the problem is environmental, wear sunglasses when outdoors to reduce exposure to sun, wind and dust. You may want to try the kind that has a foam or other seal at the sides and/or a close-fitting, wrap-style frame to keep wind and dust from getting behind the lenses and in your eyes.
Recent research suggests that cold temperatures may be another environmental cause of dry eyes. If it gets cold and windy where you live, try wearing goggles when you're outside in winter.
Indoors, an air cleaner can filter out dust and other particles from the air, while a humidifier adds moisture to air that's too dry because of air conditioning or heating.

Punctal occlusion. Temporary or permanent silicone plugs can be inserted in the lacrimal (tear) drainage ducts in your eyelids to keep tears on your eye from draining away as quickly. Called lacrimal plugs or punctal plugs, they can be inserted painlessly while you're in the eye doctor's office and normally are not felt once inserted.
A new type of punctal plug made of acrylic is a small rod that becomes a soft gel when exposed to your body heat after insertion. These plugs are designed to swell and conform to the size of your tear drainage canal. Advantages of this type of plug are that one size fits all, so measurement is unnecessary, and nothing protrudes from the tear duct that could potentially cause irritation.
Another new kind of punctal plug is made of a hydrogel material that expands into a soft, pliable gel in the tear drainage canal. It has no cap, and should it need to be removed, the eye care practitioner can simply flush it out with saline solution.
With some people, however, punctal plugs aren't effective enough, so their tear ducts need to be closed surgically (punctal cautery).

Nutrition and hydration. Doctors sometimes recommend special nutritional supplements for dry eyes. Studies have found that supplements containing omega-3 fatty acids can decrease dry eye symptoms.
Good sources of omega-3s include cold-water fish, such as sardines, cod, herring and salmon. Some eye doctors also recommend flaxseed oil to relieve dry eye.

Drinking more water can help, too. Mild dehydration often makes dry eye problems worse. This is especially true during hot, dry and windy weather. Simply drinking more water sometimes reduces the symptoms of dry eye syndrome.

The Institute of Medicine says that each day, women need 91 ounces of water and men need about 125 ounces to stay hydrated. Experts agree that about 20 percent of the water your body needs comes from the food you eat, while the rest originates from the fluids you drink.
The best choices for beverages are water, 100 percent fruit and vegetable juices and milk.

Texas Cities Dominate Top Dry Eye Hot Spots

The National Women's Health Resource Center has named the top 100 dry eye hot spots in the United States based on information compiled from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climatic Data Center and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Factors used in the selection process included temperatures, humidity, wind, altitude, pollutants and ocular allergens.
The top 20 U.S. cities named as dry eye hot spots are:

1. Las Vegas, Nev.
2. Lubbock, Texas*
2. El Paso, Texas*
4. Midland/Odessa, Texas
5. Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas
6. Atlanta, Ga.
7. Salt Lake City, Utah

8. Phoenix, Ariz.
9. Amarillo, Texas
10. Honolulu, Hawaii
11. Oklahoma City, Okla.
12. Albuquerque, N.M.
13. Tucson, Ariz.
14. Norfolk, Va.

15. Newark, N.J.
16. Boston, Mass.
17. Denver, Colo.
18. Pittsburgh, Pa.
19. Bakersfield, Calif.*
19. Wichita, Kan.*

*Cities were tied for these spots.

Medications. If medications are the cause of dry eyes, discontinuing the drug generally resolves the problem. But in this case, the benefits of the drug must be weighed against the side effect of dry eyes. Sometimes switching to a different type of medication alleviates the dry eye symptoms while keeping the needed treatment. In any case, never switch or discontinue your medications without consulting with your doctor first!

Eyelid diseases. Treating any underlying eyelid disease, such as blepharitis, helps as well. This may call for antibiotic or steroid eye drops plus frequent eyelid scrubs with an antibacterial shampoo.

Contact lenses. If contact lens discomfort is the cause of your dry eyes, your eye care practitioner may want to switch you to a different lens or have you wear your lenses for fewer hours each day. In some cases, it is recommended that contact lens wear be discontinued altogether until the dry eye problem clears up.

Vision correction surgery. Dry eyes and LASIK usually are not a good combination. If you are considering LASIK, be aware that dry eyes may disqualify you for the surgery, at least until the problem is resolved.

LASIK Surgery Risks and Complications and how to avoid them

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 17:52:00 +0000

LASIK Surgery Risks and Complications

LASIK and other types of laser eye surgery, such as PRK and LASEK, have an excellent safety profile and a very high success rate. They are designed to treat myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness) and astigmatism, and can allow you to live without glasses or contacts.

Sight-threatening complications such as complete or partial loss of vision from LASIK surgery are extremely rare, and many side effects and laser eye surgery complications can be resolved with additional surgery or medical treatment.

Like any other surgery, however, there are potential risks, side effects and limitations you should be fully aware of before electing to undergo the procedure (or any type of procedure, for that matter). Choosing a skilled and experienced LASIK eye surgeon can help reduce these risks and enable you to achieve the best possible results from laser eye surgery.

The first step is to determine if you are a good candidate for vision correction surgery. Your eye doctor will perform an advanced diagnostic eye exam to determine your suitability for LASIK surgery. He or she will evaluate: the shape and thickness of your cornea; pupil size; refractive errors; the moistness of your eyes (to check for dry eye syndrome); general health and medical history; and any medications you are taking.

Even if you are not a good candidate for LASIK, don't worry — you might still be able to have your vision fixed with other vision correction surgery such as PRK, LASEK or implantable lenses.

LASIK Eye Surgery Risk Factors and Limitations

Not everyone is a suitable candidate for LASIK eye surgery. Certain conditions and anatomical factors can increase your risk of an undesirable outcome or limit optimal LASIK results. These include:

Too thin or irregular corneas
Large pupils
High refractive error
Unstable vision
Dry eyes
Your age
If you are pregnant
If you have certain degenerative or active autoimmune disorders

For a full checklist on LASIK risk factors and whether or not you are an appropriate candidate, read our LASIK Criteria for Success.

LASIK Side Effects and Complications

Millions of Americans have had LASIK eye surgery to correct their vision since it was introduced in the United States more than 20 years ago, and experienced LASIK surgeons report that serious complication rates can be held below 1 percent.

Common LASIK complications and side effects are listed below. Most of these problems can be resolved with medical treatment or additional "enhancement" surgery.

Temporary discomfort and vision disturbances. Discomfort during the first few days following LASIK surgery, such as mild irritation and light sensitivity, is normal and to be expected. During the first few weeks or months you also may experience: halos; glare and starbursts in low-light environments, especially at night; dry eye symptoms; hazy vision; and reduced sharpness of vision. In the vast majority of cases, these problems are temporary and disappear completely within three to six months.

Flap complications. The LASIK procedure involves the creation of a thin hinged flap on the front surface of the cornea. This is lifted during surgery for laser reshaping of the eye. The flap is then replaced to form a natural bandage.
If the LASIK flap is not made correctly, it may fail to adhere properly to the eye's surface or cause microscopic wrinkles in the flap called corneal striae (STRIE-ee). These flap complications can lead to an irregularly shaped eye surface and distorted vision.
Studies indicate that flap complications occur in from 0.3 to 5.7 percent of LASIK procedures, according to the April 2006 issue of American Journal of Ophthalmology. In a study of 3,009 consecutive LASIK surgeries performed August 2002 through July 2009 using a femtosecond laser for flap creation, flap complications occurred in fewer than one-half of 1 percent (0.37 percent) of these procedures, and all complications were successfully managed within the same surgical session.
Again, remember that you can reduce your risk of LASIK complications by choosing a reputable, experienced eye surgeon.
Some problems associated with LASIK flap complications include:

Irregular astigmatism. This is caused by an unequally curved corneal surface. Irregular astigmatism also can occur from laser correction that is not centered properly on the eye or from irregular healing. Resulting symptoms may include double vision (diplopia) or "ghost images." In these cases, the eye may need re-treatment or enhancement surgery.
Epithelial ingrowth. This is when cells from the outer layer of the cornea (epithelium) grow under the flap after LASIK surgery. In most cases, epithelial ingrowth is self-limiting and causes no problems. But in some cases (reported to be 1 to 2 percent of LASIK procedures), symptoms of discomfort and/or blurred vision can occur, and additional surgery is needed to lift the flap and remove the epithelial cells.
Diffuse lamellar keratitis (DLK). Nicknamed "Sands of the Sahara," this is inflammation under the LASIK flap that may have several causes. Some inflammation of the cornea after LASIK surgery is normal. But if it is uncontrolled, as in DLK, it can interfere with healing and cause vision loss. If DLK occurs, it usually responds to therapies such as antibiotics and topical steroids. Also, the flap might need to be lifted and cleaned for removal of inflammatory cells and to prevent tissue damage.
Keratectasia or keratoconus. This is a very uncommon bulging of the eye's surface that can occur if too much tissue is removed from the cornea during LASIK or if the cornea prior to LASIK is weak as evidenced from corneal topography mapping. Rarely does keratoconus develop after LASIK with no known risk factors.

Enhancement laser surgery is usually not suitable, and gas permeable contact lenses or corneal implants (Intacs) may be prescribed to hold the cornea in place, or a treatment called corneal collagen crosslinking may be performed to strengthen the cornea.

Dry eyes after LASIK.

Some people who have LASIK surgery experience a decrease in tear production that can cause eye discomfort and blurred vision. Almost half of all LASIK patients experience some degree of temporary dry eye syndrome, according to the April 2006 issue of American Journal of Ophthalmology.
Dry eye syndrome after LASIK surgery usually is temporary and can be effectively treated with lubricating eye drops or other measures.
Dry eye problems usually disappear when healing of the eye is complete, which can take up to six months. People who already have severe dry eye usually are eliminated as LASIK candidates.
Significant undercorrection, overcorrection or regression. Not everyone will achieve 20/20 vision after LASIK eye surgery, and contacts or eyeglasses for some or all activities may still be required in rare cases. If the laser removes too much or too little corneal tissue, or your eye's healing response is not typical, your visual outcome will be less than optimal.
In many cases, the cause of a less-than-perfect outcome is that your eyes did not respond to laser eye surgery in a predictable manner. Another possible cause is that your eyesight may be optimal at first but regress over time due to "over-healing."
In most cases, a significant undercorrection or regression can be treated with additional laser vision correction or other refractive surgery methods such as conductive keratoplasty, once it is certain that the refractive error is stable.
Eye infection. While rare, LASIK surgeons report that infections occur more frequently with surface ablations such as PRK. At the 2008 annual meeting of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS), researchers reported that the LASIK flap, which is lifted during surgery and then replaced to serve as a type of natural "bandage," seemed to create a more sterile surgical environment than PRK and other surface ablation procedures, thereby reducing the risk of infection.
Eye infections after LASIK surgery typically are temporary, and can be treated with antibiotic eye drops or anti-inflammatory medication such as steroids.

LASIK Complications: How They Affect You, How They're Treated
Complications	Symptoms	Treatments
Incomplete corrections (undercorrection, overcorrection, residual astigmatism) or regression of effect	Blurry, less-than-perfect vision	Glasses or contact lenses; eye drops; re-treatment with laser
Decentered ablations	Visual aberrations*	Eye drops; re-treatment with laser
Oversize pupils	Visual aberrations*	Eye drops; re-treatment with laser
Haze	Visual aberrations*	Eye drops; re-treatment with laser
Irregular flap (folds, wrinkles, striae)	Visual aberrations*	Surgical correction; second laser procedure
Dry eye	Dry, itchy or scratchy eyes, often with redness and sense of foreign object in eye, and sometimes pain	Prescription dry eye medication; artificial tears; punctal occlusion (blockage of tear ducts in order to retain tear film on eye), oral flaxseed oil
Diffuse lamellar keratitis (eye inflammation)	Visual aberrations*	Eye drops; surgical rinsing of cells if severe
Epithelial ingrowth	Visual aberrations*	Surgical removal of epithelium
Infection	Redness, oozing of eyes, sometimes pain	Eye drops; oral medications
*Visual aberrations include symptoms such as glare, double vision, ghosting, halos, starbursts, loss of contrast sensitivity, and problems with low-light or night vision. Most patients do not experience these symptoms, and some patients with these complications experience no symptoms and require no treatment. [See also: Higher-Order Aberrations.] Chart created by Keith Croes and reviewed by Brian Boxer Wachler, MD.

How To Compare Laser Eye Surgery Prices with 8 questions to ask your surgeon.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 17:38:00 +0000

How to Compare Laser Eye Surgery Prices

If you're looking into LASIK or other laser eye surgery, cost is going to be one of your main concerns. It's a significant investment, and you want to do your homework to be sure the price you're quoted is reasonable for your vision correction needs.

We provide average LASIK prices in a separate article, but prices can vary a lot from one surgery center to another, and it depends greatly on surgeon skill, the technology used, your vision prescription and more.

Newer Technology Can Increase LASIK Cost

There are different types of LASIK. You may expect higher costs when you choose newer options such as these over traditional LASIK:

Custom LASIK (or wavefront LASIK), which uses wavefront analysis to measure and map the eye's aberrations to help provide a more precise correction.
Femtosecond laser technology (often called all-laser LASIK or bladeless LASIK), which uses a laser instead of a blade to cut the corneal flap. Those surgeons who perform all-laser LASIK cite studies that show patients have fewer flap complications, need fewer retreatments and have a greater likelihood of achieving 20/20 visual acuity or better.

But not all eye surgeons agree that laser-made flaps are superior, and the merits of blade versus bladeless LASIK continue to be debated.

But keep in mind that many surgeons don't charge a separate fee for new technologies used in LASIK, and instead quote their price as a single fee. In a survey of U.S. eye surgeons, about half said they quote their price as a single fee.

U.S. refractive surgeons are evenly divided between those who charge a single price for all their laser procedures and those who charge various prices according to the technology used or the severity/type of vision correction required by the patient. (Pricing information provided to AllAboutVision.com by a leading industry analyst.)

Other Contributors to LASIK Cost

One reason fees vary is that different providers perform varying levels of preoperative testing. Since proper screening can avoid problems, it's important to determine if appropriate testing is included in a quoted price.
Wide variation exists also in the cost of equipment used for testing and surgery. Technologies for eye tracking, tear film analysis and measurements of corneal thickness, corneal topography and pupil size, as well as the laser itself, are available at various price points and can be reflected in the procedure fee.
Refractive surgery fees cover a variety of costs, including:

Purchase or lease and maintenance of the excimer laser, microkeratome, femtosecond laser and/or other devices used in the procedure.
A $100 to $150 per eye royalty fee to the excimer laser manufacturer, who must recoup the cost to develop the machine.
A $145 to $250 per eye royalty fee if it is a custom procedure, depending on the laser manufacturer.
Microkeratome blades, surgical solutions and medications used during the surgery.
For a femtosecond laser, disposable equipment that includes a metal cone and glass lens connecting the laser to the treated eye.
Gowns, masks, gloves and other items for keeping the operation sterile.
Overhead for the surgery center, which includes office and surgical staff salaries and benefits, rent, office equipment and office administration.
Patient acquisition costs, which include advertising, seminars and fees paid to other eye care practitioners for comanagement.
Insurance.
And, especially, "the surgeon," who is the single most important part of any surgical procedure.

Also included in most fees are the pre-op evaluation meeting, comprehensive eye examination (including technician time and equipment costs), follow-up office visits and tests, plus any standard medications.
Many surgeons also offer free enhancement surgery if it is warranted. Often a team of doctors reviews your case to determine this, and their time is included in the fee.

8 Important Questions to Ask Your Surgeon About Procedure Prices

When discussing fees with your surgeon, ask:

What is included?
What is not?
May I have a written quote with everything itemized?
Is the price quoted for one eye or both eyes? (Technically, one procedure equals one eye, even if both eyes will be corrected on the same day.)
What will I have to pay for if complications occur or enhancement surgery becomes necessary?
What will be the cost of prescription medications (such as anti-inflammatories and painkillers)?
If I require temporary contact lenses or glasses after the procedure, how much will they cost?
How many follow-up visits will I need to make, and at what cost?

What Else You Need to Know About Laser Eye Surgery Prices

Before making a final decision, ask yourself:

Does the quote fall within typical ranges? (See the yellow-highlighted areas of our laser eye surgery price chart.)
If the quote is significantly higher than usual, does your eye surgeon have exceptional credentials that help justify the extra price?
If the quote is significantly lower than usual, is your eye surgeon relatively inexperienced? Are you sure you are being quoted the full price?

When a surgical center quotes a single price for all procedures regardless of technology or your presciption, ask these questions:

Will I receive a laser-created flap?
Will my procedure be wavefront-guided?

LASIK Eye Surgery Results: Are you likely to see 20/20 after LASIK?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 17:26:00 +0000

LASIK Results: What to Expect

By Keith Croes, with updates by Diane Donofrio Angelucci;
contributions and review by Vance Thompson, MD

LASIK eye surgery results have continued to improve, along with supporting technology and surgeon skill, which should offer some reassurance to candidates who are unsure about what to expect.

Thanks to LASIK, millions of people throughout the world are less dependent on glasses or contact lenses. Still, the decision to have LASIK should be approached with caution. Because surgery is involved, some serious potential risks — though rare — are associated.

Because LASIK is an elective procedure, you will be contemplating surgery on an otherwise healthy eye. For that reason, always consider that you have the option of safe and effective nonsurgical alternatives, such as glasses and contact lenses.

When considering LASIK, do some homework and consult with your eye doctor to learn more about the procedure. Ask about potential LASIK complications as well as visual outcomes.

Inquire about the technology your LASIK surgeon uses for the procedure. In LASIK, an ultra-thin, hinged flap is lifted from the surface of your eye. After laser energy is applied to reshape the cornea, the flap is replaced to serve as a type of natural bandage.

Does your surgeon prefer a blade-created flap or a laser-created flap associated with the recent innovation of bladeless LASIK?

Consider also that newly developed eye-tracking technology in an excimer laser helps make inadvertent eye movement less of a problem during a procedure.
Also, custom or wavefront-guided LASIK reduces the chance of nighttime visual problems such as glare and halos.

After you go through the education process to understand your best treatment options and the available technology, it is important to understand your surgeon's level of experience. After a balanced discussion about all these issues, you will be more prepared to make an educated decision, which will improve your chance of a good LASIK outcome.

Possible LASIK Complications

LASIK carries a slight risk of short- and long-term complications. Most people respond well to treatment, but some cases are more difficult. Very rarely, permanent problems can result.

According to guidelines from the Eye Surgery Education Council (ESEC) founded by members of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, fewer than 1 percent of LASIK patients experience serious, vision-threatening problems.
LASIK complications can include:

More serious problems such as eye infection, chronic dry eye and LASIK flap problems.
Less serious complications that generally clear up on their own as the eye heals, including halos, haze and glare.

The ESEC says most LASIK complications can be treated and usually clear up within several months.

Studies consistently show that LASIK complications decline as surgeon experience increases. So you can increase your chance of a good outcome by choosing an experienced surgeon.

It's also important to remember that your general health and eye health both influence the risk of certain complications. For example, you may be at greater risk of LASIK complications if you have a disease such as diabetes that can interfere with your body's normal healing responses. Of course, you will need to discuss your general health with your eye doctor.

Also consider that, even under the most ideal circumstances with a technically flawless surgical procedure, each patient responds and heals differently after eye surgery.

LASIK Studies and Safety Standards

The eye care community sets high standards for LASIK success. For a LASIK laser to receive FDA approval, manufacturers are expected to have adverse event rates of less than 1 percent during clinical trials.

The FDA definition of adverse event includes a list of specific problems such as corneal swelling, flap problems, uncontrolled intraocular pressure and a detached retina.
At this time, no central database of LASIK outcomes exists. Most of what is known about visual acuity outcomes after LASIK is based on various clinical studies, especially trials the FDA requires laser manufacturers to perform to obtain approval.
Most clinical studies of LASIK vision outcomes have a few elements in common. These include:

An assessment of how many people achieve 20/20 vision or better (so-called "perfect" vision) and how many achieve 20/40 vision or better (the minimum visual acuity required to obtain a driver's license in most states).
A discussion of how many people get to within one diopter or a half diopter of zero refractive error. (Myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism are all refractive errors. Zero refractive error is called emmetropia.)
Details about possible adverse events associated with LASIK.

To monitor vision changes during the LASIK recovery period, many studies measure visual outcomes immediately after surgery, several days later and at one, three and six months after the procedure.

Apples to Oranges: Comparing FDA Data on LASIK Lasers

The FDA has approved lasers for use in LASIK to treat myopia and hyperopia, with or without astigmatism. Best results generally have occurred in people with low to moderate myopia.
When considering FDA studies, however, it is impossible to compare study results head-to-head. This is because people who enrolled in one study originally may have had different characteristics than those who had LASIK in a study for another company's laser.
Results from the same laser also can vary, depending on how people were selected for the study. Some studies may eliminate those with higher amounts of refractive error, for example, while others may need to assess results specifically for these types of vision problems.
Furthermore, later results with these lasers are probably better, as surgeons gain experience and many of the lasers are improved. In short, FDA results serve best to provide a general perspective of trends.
Our article on LASIK lasers provides more information about FDA-approved lasers for LASIK, including their approved treatment levels. For example, you can learn about the amount of myopia, hyperopia and/or astigmatism the lasers are approved to treat.
Just remember that, no matter the approved treatment level of the laser, you and your surgeon can choose to do whatever you think is appropriate and reasonable in your particular case.

Best-Corrected Vision After LASIK

The target values that the eye care community have established for LASIK vision outcomes say a lot about what you can expect from the procedure.
The most feared outcome of LASIK is a decrease in best possible vision, something doctors call best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), or sometimes best spectacle-corrected visual acuity (BSCVA).
In other words, if you can be corrected to 20/20 with glasses or contact lenses before undergoing LASIK, you'd like to be correctable to at least 20/20 after LASIK (if LASIK falls short of giving you 20/20 uncorrected vision).
For example, if you have 20/200 uncorrected vision before LASIK and see 20/20 with contact lenses or glasses, then see 20/40 uncorrected after LASIK but are correctable to only 20/25 with contacts or glasses, you have lost one line of BCVA (from 20/20 to 20/25) on a standard eye chart.
But even though you lost one line of best corrected visual acuity, you gained more than six lines of uncorrected vision (from 20/200 to 20/40).
The FDA expects laser manufacturers to show that no more than 5 percent of patients in clinical trials lose more than two lines of BCVA and that less than 1 percent of patients have BCVA worse than 20/40.

How Well Can You Expect To See After LASIK?

In a major report discussed on the American Academy of Ophthalmology website, 64 LASIK studies published since 2000 were reviewed with these results reported:

In a detailed analysis of all 64 studies, a median of 92 percent of eyes with myopia or myopic astigmatism achieved a correction within 2.0 diopters of target. Results were better for eyes with low or moderate myopia, compared with high myopia.
In 22 studies of outcomes involving people with low to high levels of myopia, a median of 94 percent of eyes achieved 20/40 or better vision after surgery and did not require correction with glasses or contact lenses (uncorrected visual acuity or UCVA). A median of 99 percent of people with low to moderate levels of myopia had 20/40 or better UCVA, and a median of 89 percent of people with high myopia had the same result.
In these same studies, outcomes for people with hyperopia also were examined. Results showed that a median of 88 percent of eyes with hyperopia and hyperopic astigmatism achieved correction within 1.0 diopter of target, resulting in at least 20/40 UCVA.

According to a major analysis of scientific literature by the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery reported in 2008, worldwide satisfaction rates among LASIK patients is 95.4 percent.
Some studies, such as one reported in the October 2008 issue of Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, continue to show a slight trend toward better LASIK outcomes if you don't require a high degree of correction — for example, if you are moderately nearsighted as opposed to extremely nearsighted.
More details about LASIK outcomes will be known after the FDA completes an ongoing Quality of Life study that involves detailed examination of the types of vision improvement people have, along with possible side effects that might not ordinarily be reported in clinical trials. In late March 2011, the FDA began selecting sites throughout the United States where people who have undergone LASIK will be surveyed to assess their satisfaction with their LASIK outcome and to document adverse visual symptoms or complications.
Most LASIK surgeons should be able to provide you with benchmarks, such as figures showing what percentage of their patients have achieved UCVA of 20/20 or better after LASIK.

LASIK Results and Your Eye Surgeon

LASIK is like many other surgical procedures. Where you start is an important predictor of where you end up. Results are affected by the health of your body in general, your eyes in particular and the status of your current vision.
And, as with all other surgical procedures, surgeon skill and experience are major factors that cannot be overlooked.

LASIK Success: 9 things You Must Meet for Successful LASIK

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 17:14:00 +0000

A successful LASIK procedure is determined largely by whether you meet certain patient criteria and if laser eye surgery is right for you.

LASIK and PRK outcomes are almost always favorable; however, not everyone is a good candidate for vision correction surgery.
The following laser eye surgery checklist is a good start to help you determine if LASIK or PRK is right for you.

1. Your Eyes Must Be Healthy

If you have any condition that can affect how your eyes respond to surgery or heal afterwards, you must wait until that condition is resolved. Examples are severe dry eye syndrome, conjunctivitis (pink eye), infection and any healing injury to the eye.
If you have persistent dry eyes, where you do not produce enough tears to keep your eyes lubricated and healthy, LASIK surgery may aggravate this condition. Common symptoms of dry eyes include burning or stinging, a gritty sensation in the eye, reduced tolerance to wind, intermittent blurry vision, and even excessive tears in some cases. If you have some of these symptoms, be sure to discuss them with your doctor prior to surgery.
Your eye doctor can determine if you have dry eyes during your pre-operative exam and usually can successfully treat the condition so you can then proceed with laser eye surgery. Possible treatments include artificial tears, punctal plugs, medicated eye drops, flaxseed or fish oil supplements, or a combination of these approaches.
Cataracts that interfere with your vision and uncontrolled glaucoma also will typically prevent you from being a candidate for LASIK or PRK procedures.

2. Your Cornea Must Have Sufficient Thickness

Most refractive procedures improve visual acuity by reshaping the front surface of the eye (cornea). Performing laser eye surgery on a cornea that is too thin or has a surface that is extremely irregular and misshapen (for example, if you suffer from keratoconus) will compromise results and can impair your vision.
Another type of refractive surgery such as implantable lenses (phakic IOLs) may be more appropriate.

3. Your Pupils Must Not Be Overly Large

If your pupils are naturally large, you could be at increased risk of side effects such as halos, glares and starbursts in low light, especially when driving at night.

4. Your Prescription Must Be Within Certain Limits

If your prescription is very high — whether due to nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism — your eye surgeon may advise you against the LASIK procedure.
Results of LASIK surgery for the treatment of very high refractive errors are less predictable and may not be worth the cost and potential risks.
In addition, very high amounts of myopia, for example, could require removal of too much corneal tissue and put you at increased risk of vision complications.
If you have a severe refractive error, another type of vision correction surgery may be a better option, such as phakic IOL implantable lenses or refractive lens exchange.

5. You Must Be Over a Certain Age

Certain procedures require you to be 18; others, 21. Patients younger than these ages can be treated as an exception at the discretion of the LASIK surgeon with permission from the patient's parent(s) or guardian.
Generally there is no upper age limit to laser eye surgery. However, it is important to note that once you hit your 40s, you may still need reading glasses to correct near vision due to a normal, age-related condition called presbyopia.
Of course, your surgeon may also consider you a candidate for surgical correction of presbyopia such as monovision LASIK, which can improve your near vision without reading glasses or bifocals.
Keep in mind that women are more at risk for dry eyes after menopause, and men have a greater risk for dry eyes later in life as well. As noted above, a dry eye condition should be treated before LASIK surgery.

6. You Must Have Stable Vision for at Least a Year

Teenagers and many young adults often experience changes in their contact lens prescription and eyeglass prescription from year to year. It's important for refractive errors to be stable for at least 12 months before undergoing LASIK or other refractive surgery.
Usually it is nearsightedness that gradually becomes worse, but there may be other changes as well.

7. You Must Be in Good Health

Contraindications to laser eye surgery may include certain uncontrolled degenerative conditions or uncontrolled autoimmune diseases such as Sjogren's syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes and AIDS. People with HIV who have good immune cell counts may be candidates for LASIK.
Basically, if your body has any trouble with healing, you will have a higher risk of an unsatisfactory LASIK surgery outcome.
Opinions vary among LASIK surgeons regarding which diseases are automatic disqualifiers and which ones might pose acceptable risks in certain cases.
Also, certain medications can increase risks associated with laser eye surgery. For example, immunosuppressants may interfere with post-operative healing, and some medications such as isotretinoin (Accutane) may increase the chance and/or severity of dry eye syndrome.

8. If You Are Pregnant, You Should Delay Surgery

The LASIK procedure is not suitable if you are pregnant or nursing. Hormonal changes can alter the shape of your cornea, leading to temporary changes in your vision.
Surgery should not be performed until your hormones and vision have returned to normal after pregnancy. This could take a few months.
Pregnant women often have dry eyes, which is another reason you may need to postpone LASIK until a few months after pregnancy. Also, some medications that would normally be used before or after surgery to promote healing (such as antibiotics and steroids) may be risky for your baby, whether unborn or nursing.

9. Do You Have Realistic Expectations?

While the vast majority of LASIK surgery results are excellent, you should be fully aware of the possible side effects, risks and potential LASIK complications before you choose to undergo the procedure.
An experienced LASIK surgeon will advise you whether you are a good candidate for laser eye surgery, or if another type of refractive surgery may be more appropriate.

LASIK & Laser Eye Surgery: A Complete Consumer Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 05:13:00 +0000

LASIK is a surgical procedure intended to reduce a person's dependency on glasses or contact lenses. The goal of this Web site is to provide objective information to the public about LASIK surgery.

What You Should Know About LASIK:

How LASIK Works:What happens before, during and after surgery.

The LASIK Procedure: A Complete Guide

By Brian S. Boxer Wachler, MD

LASIK, or "laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis," is the most commonly performed laser eye surgery to treat myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness) and astigmatism.

Like other types of refractive surgery, the LASIK procedure reshapes the cornea to enable light entering the eye to be properly focused onto the retina for clearer vision.
In most cases, laser eye surgery is pain-free and completed within 15 minutes for both eyes. The results — improved vision without eyeglasses or contact lenses — can usually be seen in as little as 24 hours.
If you're not a good LASIK candidate, a number of other vision correction surgeries are available, such as PRK and LASEK laser eye surgery and phakic IOL surgery. Your eye doctor will determine if one of these procedures is suitable for your condition and, if so, which technique is best.

How Is LASIK Surgery Performed?

First, your eye surgeon uses either a mechanical surgical tool called a microkeratome or a femtosecond laser to create a thin, circular "flap" in the cornea.
The surgeon then folds back the hinged flap to access the underlying cornea (called the stroma) and removes some corneal tissue using an excimer laser.
This highly specialized laser uses a cool ultraviolet light beam to remove ("ablate") microscopic amounts of tissue from the cornea to reshape it so it more accurately focuses light on the retina for improved vision.
For nearsighted people, the goal is to flatten the cornea; with farsighted people, a steeper cornea is desired.
Excimer lasers also can correct astigmatism by smoothing an irregular cornea into a more normal shape. It is a misconception that LASIK cannot treat astigmatism.
After the laser reshapes the cornea, the flap is then laid back in place, covering the area where the corneal tissue was removed. Then the cornea is allowed to heal naturally.
Laser eye surgery requires only topical anesthetic drops, and no bandages or stitches are required.

Before LASIK Surgery

Your eye doctor will perform a thorough eye exam to ensure your eyes are healthy enough for the procedure. He or she will evaluate: the shape and thickness of your cornea; pupil size; refractive errors (myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism); as well as any other eye conditions.

The moistness of your eyes will also be evaluated, and a precautionary treatment may be recommended to reduce your risk of developing dry eyes after LASIK.
Usually, an automated instrument called a corneal topographer is used to measure the curvature of the front surface of your eye and create a "map" of your cornea.
With wavefront technology associated with custom LASIK, you also are likely to undergo a wavefront analysis that sends light waves through the eye to provide an even more precise map of aberrations affecting your vision.
Your eye doctor will also note your general health history and any medications you are taking to determine if you are a suitable candidate for LASIK.

You should stop wearing contact lenses for a period of time advised by your doctor (typically around two weeks) before your eye exam and before the LASIK procedure, as contacts can alter the natural shape of your cornea.

How LASIK Works

Before your surgery begins, numbing eye drops are applied to your eye to prevent any discomfort during the procedure. Your doctor may also give you some medication to help you relax.
Your eye will be positioned under the laser, and an instrument called a lid speculum is used to keep your eyelids open.
The surgeon uses an ink marker to mark the cornea before creating the flap. A suction ring is applied to the front of your eye to prevent eye movements or loss of contact that could affect flap quality.
After the corneal flap is created, the surgeon then uses a computer to adjust the excimer laser for your particular prescription.
You will be asked to look at a target light for a short time while he or she watches your eye through a microscope as the laser sends pulses of light to your cornea.
The laser light pulses painlessly reshape the cornea, although you may feel some pressure on your eye. You'll also hear a steady clicking sound while the laser is operating.

Immediately After LASIK Surgery

Upon completion of your LASIK surgery, your surgeon will have you rest for a bit. You may feel a temporary burning or itching sensation immediately following the procedure. After a brief post-operative exam, someone can then drive you home. (You cannot drive yourself until your eye doctor confirms your uncorrected vision meets the legal standard for driving.)

LASIK is performed on each eye separately, with each procedure taking only about five minutes.
You should expect some blurry vision and haziness immediately after surgery; however, clarity should improve by the very next morning.
Your eyesight should stabilize and continue to improve within a few days, although in rare cases it may take several weeks or longer. For most people, vision improves immediately.
You may be able to go to work the next day, but many doctors advise a couple of days of rest instead.
Also, it is usually recommended that you refrain from any strenuous exercise for at least a week, since this can traumatize the eye and affect healing.
Generally, you will return to see your eye doctor or your LASIK surgeon the day after surgery.
At this initial check-up, he or she will test your vision to make sure you are legal to drive without glasses or contact lenses. In most states, this requires uncorrected visual acuity of 20/40 or better.
As with any other surgery, always follow your doctor's instructions and take any medication prescribed. Also, avoid rubbing your eyes, as there’s a small chance this could dislodge the flap until it heals and adheres more securely to the underlying cornea.

Long-Term Results

Laser eye surgery offers numerous benefits and can dramatically improve your quality of life. Most people achieve 20/20 vision or better after the surgery, but LASIK results do vary. Some people may achieve only 20/40 vision or less.
You may still need to wear glasses or contact lenses following laser vision correction, though your prescription level typically will be much lower than before.
While the procedure has an excellent safety profile, LASIK complications can occur and may include infection or night glare (starbursts or halos that are most noticeable when you're viewing lights at night, such as while you're driving).
A small percentage of people will need a LASIK enhancement, or "touch up" procedure, a few months after the primary LASIK surgery to achieve acceptable visual acuity.
You also may still need reading glasses once you reach your 40s, due to a normal age-related loss of near vision called presbyopia.
While LASIK surgery has a high success rate, it is important that you discuss all facets of the procedure with your surgeon prior to consenting to the surgery.

How to Choose a LASIK Surgeon

By Liz Segre, with updates by Marilyn Haddrill; reviewed by Robert L. Epstein, MD

Choosing a surgeon for LASIK or PRK is not as difficult as it can be for many other kinds of surgery.

But a bad eye procedure outcome can affect your life almost as negatively as a bad heart operation outcome. That's why it is so important to choose the best surgeon available.
Indicators of a quality surgeon can include experience, great credentials and willingness to work with a patient to resolve possible problems following a procedure.

Finding a Good LASIK Surgeon

Factors to consider when you check qualifications and abilities of a refractive surgeon include:

Licensing. State licensing boards can validate a surgeon's credentials. You also can check a surgeon's credentials through the National Practitioner Data Bank.
Board certification. Ask if your surgeon is board certified beyond having a basic license to practice medicine. This means that an entity recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties has certified the surgeon to practice in his or her specialty. The American Board of Ophthalmology is one such entity that requires board-certified physicians to complete specific training and continuing education related to the specialty.
American College of Surgeons (ACS) membership. The ACS upholds ethical standards of conduct for all members, who must be board certified.

"A lot of companies make LASIK sound like it's a flap-and-zap commodity. But the truth is, it's surgery," said Steve Updegraff, MD, a LASIK surgeon and medical director of Updegraff Vision in Tampa Bay, Fla. He recommends that you choose a doctor who is a Fellow of the ACS. "The credentialing process there is pretty steep; also, that group is diligent about advancing the field of surgery."

Surgeons who use the designation "FACS" after their names are Fellows of the American College of Surgeons.
Advertisements. Many refractive surgery centers advertise in newspapers and on radio, television and the Internet. Some ads are more informative than others. Some tout extremely good pricing. But while this can be a starting point, an ad or a procedure price should not be your only criterion when choosing a doctor.
Referrals. Ask for a referral from your regular eye care practitioner, whether an optometrist or an ophthalmologist. Tell him or her that you want the LASIK surgeon in your area with the best reputation in the profession. Also, reputable LASIK surgeons themselves can be great sources of referrals. If you know of a refractive surgeon who is well respected in another state, call his or her office and ask for recommendations regarding good surgeons in your area.
Other resources. Visit the American Academy of Ophthalmology's website at www.aao.org, where you can use the "Find an Eye MD" feature. Be sure to specify "refractive surgery" under "specialty." The American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) also maintains an online membership list and "Find a Surgeon" feature.

You might want to start your research by consulting the Yellow Pages and calling refractive surgery centers in your area to find answers to your questions. Also, most refractive surgery centers have websites that explain their specialties and list their doctors' credentials. Some surgical center sites even let you search for specific surgeons, if you have a name in mind.

What To Ask a Refractive Surgeon

After you find a surgeon, make an appointment for a consultation. This is an important meeting. To take full advantage of it, write down as many relevant questions about LASIK and refractive surgery you can think of, and ask every single one during your visit.

Some recommended questions are:

How many procedures have you done?
What is your complication rate, and how does this compare with national averages?
Do you perform procedures at your own center, or do you need to travel elsewhere?
What are your outcome statistics, and how do these compare with national averages?
Has the surgical center you use ever had an outbreak of serious eye infections? If so, what caused this?
If a complication does occur, what is your specific policy regarding follow-up?
Do you charge extra if an enhancement is required?
If you do charge extra for enhancements, what kind of a price break can be expected?
If you don't charge extra for enhancements, what is your cutoff date (one year, for example) for addressing problems after the initial procedure?
Does your billing department break out and explain all costs associated with a LASIK or other vision correction procedure?

You need to be confident that you have chosen the right person. So if you are not happy with answers to your questions, consult another surgeon.
In addition to the above concerns, you also need to consider the surgeon's versatility and competency in a variety of refractive procedures. LASIK isn't the only game in town, and it isn't the best procedure for every person.
Choose a surgeon who is comfortable and experienced with several procedures — such as LASIK, PRK, LASEK, CK and clear lens replacement (refractive lens exchange) — and the latest technology. If your doctor displays a thorough understanding of these different procedures, he or she can confidently choose the one that will be best to correct your particular vision problems.
If you're considering a surgeon who doesn't perform a particular procedure you're interested in, ask for an explanation of why, beyond "I don't do that."
It's also a good idea to know if a surgical center has had any unusual or ongoing outbreaks of eye infections, which potentially can be quite serious. With strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria on the increase, it's essential that surgical center personnel observe impeccable standards regarding sterilizing instruments and equipment.
It's also appropriate to ask if the surgeon performs procedures at his or her own surgical center. Surgeons in this category likely have considerable experience because they perform enough procedures to support a center of their own. If a surgeon needs to travel to an outside surgical center or share a laser, then this may be evidence that he or she performs fewer refractive surgery procedures.
After a consultation, never feel that you are obligated to use that surgeon. You are completely free to talk to other surgeons as well. And don't feel that you are offending anyone. It has long been an accepted practice to seek a second opinion, and most doctors would urge patients with lingering doubts to do so.

The LASIK Surgeon's Office: "That Personal Touch"

While you might hear of a terrific surgeon who practices outside your area, it really is best and far more convenient to find someone close to home. If you do have a rare complication that requires ongoing attention, it will be much easier for you if you can avoid traveling long distances for appointments or even routine follow-up care.
"As with any relationship you have with someone in the medical profession, it has to be one of trust," said Penny Asbell, MD, ophthalmology professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and director of Cornea Service and Refractive Surgery Center in New York. "You have to feel that you trust the person and that they're personally interested in you."
She said it's normal to be concerned if you think you lack rapport with your eye surgeon.
"If everything goes well, you probably won't have to see that person too often, and that's the end of it," Dr. Asbell said. "But if for any reason you're not happy with the quality of the result, or there's any issue with healing that's going to require more attention, you want to know that you have someone who is personally connected to you and is working hard to address your concerns — someone who isn't just running a mill where they don't even remember who you are."
But to be fair, most good surgeons understandably have only a certain amount of time to spend with their patients when routine procedures are involved. So a good surgeon also recognizes that it's important to have friendly, competent staff available who also can assist with answering your questions and concerns.
The initial impression you receive at the "front desk" may be an important indicator of how comfortable you will be made to feel as you go through the remaining steps of scheduling and undergoing a surgical procedure.
Are staff members friendly or indifferent? Do they seem competent or disorganized? Are they willing to take the time to answer questions, particularly about costs and billing?

Click bellow to read more about LASIK

How To Compare Laser Eye Surgery Prices— with 8 questions to ask your surgeon

LASIK Criteria for Success: How to know if LASIK or PRK is for you

LASIK Eye Surgery Results: Are you likely to see 20/20 after LASIK?

LASIK Surgery Risks and Complications — and how to avoid them

Dry Eyes and LASIK: You may still be a candidate.

LASIK Enhancement: Do you need an additional surgery? Will you in the future?

LASIK Eye Surgery Cost: Read our 2014 update of average prices.

LASIK Financing: Learn how you can afford LASIK surgery.

Which Laser Is Best? Read a review of all current LASIK lasers.

Contact Lenses After LASIK: Why some people need them.

Corneal Crosslinking: A new method of strengthening the eye's surface after LASIK.

Robotic Surgery History Details

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 03:54:00 +0000

History of Robotic Surgery:

Robotic surgery is the use of robots in performing surgery. Three major advances aided by surgical robots have been remote surgery, minimally invasive surgery and unmanned surgery.

Traditional Laparoscopic Surgery compared to da Vinci Robotic Surgery:

The technology used in Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci surgical robot is made to allow surgeons to operate through the small ports used in non-invasive surgery however with the same direct approach learned in open surgery and similar or even better range of motion.

This is as opposed to traditional laparoscopic surgery, in which the surgeon must move the instrument handles within the other direction because the instrument tips - left means right and right means left. Many surgeons describe this approach to be counter-intuitive. Instead, when the da Vinci surgeon moves the console controls clockwise, the tiny wristed instruments inside the patient twist clockwise too.

Surgeons state that they benefit from the user interface design, which is very much like the experience of performing open surgery. Their patients benefit from a non-invasive approach that provides better precision, visualization and control as compared to conventional laparoscopy.

Health Tech Trends : Roles in Robotic Surgery featuring Dr. David Samadi:

The Institute for Health Technology Transformation (iHT²) commissioned this piece of "Roles in Robotic Surgery". It features Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci Surgical Robotic System and Dr. David Samadi of Mount Sinai School of Medicine offering his thoughts on the future of robotic surgery, specifically robotic prostatectomy.

Lack of crossover between industrial robotics and medicine,particularly surgery:

Surgical robots have entered the field in force. Robotic telesurgical machines have already been used to perform transcontinental cholecystectomy. Voice-activated robotic arms routinely maneuver endoscopic cameras, and complex master slave robotic systems are currently FDA approved, marketed, and used for a variety of procedures. It remains to be seen, however, if history will look on the development of robotic surgery as a profound paradigm shift or as a bump in the road on the way to something even more important.

Paradigm shift or not, the origin of surgical robotics is rooted in the strengths and weaknesses of its predecessors. Minimally invasive surgery began in 1987 with the first laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Since then, the list of procedures performed laparoscopically has grown at a pace consistent with improvements in technology and the technical skill of surgeons. The advantages of minimally invasive surgery are very popular among surgeons, patients, and insurance companies. Incisions are smaller, the risk of infection is less, hospital stays are shorter, if necessary at all, and convalescence is significantly reduced. Many studies have shown that laparoscopic procedures result in decreased hospital stays, a quicker return to the workforce, decreased pain, better cosmesis, and better postoperative immune function.

As attractive as minimally invasive surgery is, there are several limitations. Some of the more prominent limitations involve the technical and mechanical nature of the equipment. Inherent in current laparoscopic equipment is a loss of haptic feedback (force and tactile), natural hand-eye coordination, and dexterity. Moving the laparoscopic instruments while watching a 2-dimensional video monitor is somewhat counterintuitive. One must move the instrument in the opposite direction from the desired target on the monitor to interact with the site of interest. Hand-eye coordination is therefore compromised. Some refer to this as the fulcrum effect. Current instruments have restricted degrees of motion; most have 4 degrees of motion, whereas the human wrist and hand have 7 degrees of motion. There is also a decreased sense of touch that makes tissue manipulation more heavily dependent on visualization. Finally, physiologic tremors in the surgeon are readily transmitted through the length of rigid instruments. These limitations make more delicate dissections and anastomoses difficult if not impossible. The motivation to develop surgical robots is rooted in the desire to overcome the limitations of current laparoscopic technologies and to expand the benefits of minimally invasive surgery.From their inception, surgical robots have been envisioned to extend the capabilities of human surgeons beyond the limits of conventional laparoscopy. The history of robotics in surgery begins with the Puma 560, a robot used in 1985 by Kwoh et al to perform neurosurgical biopsies with greater precision. Three years later, Davies et al performed a transurethral resection of the prostate using the Puma 560 This system eventually led to the development of PROBOT, a robot designed specifically for transurethral resection of the prostate. While PROBOT was being developed, Integrated Surgical Supplies Ltd. of Sacramento, CA, was developing ROBODOC, a robotic system designed to machine the femur with greater precision in hip replacement surgeries. ROBODOC was the first surgical robot approved by the FDA.

Also in the mid-to-late 1980s a group of researchers at the National Air and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center working on virtual reality became interested in using this information to develop telepresence surgery. This concept of telesurgery became one of the main driving forces behind the development of surgical robots. In the early 1990s, several of the scientists from the NASA-Ames team joined the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). Working with SRI's other robotocists and virtual reality experts, these scientists developed a dexterous telemanipulator for hand surgery. One of their main design goals was to give the surgeon the sense of operating directly on the patient rather than from across the room. While these robots were being developed, general surgeons and endoscopists joined the development team and realized the potential these systems had in ameliorating the limitations of conventional laparoscopic surgery.

The US Army noticed the work of SRI, and it became interested in the possibility of decreasing wartime mortality by "bringing the surgeon to the wounded soldier-through telepresence." With funding from the US Army, a system was devised whereby a wounded soldier could be loaded into a vehicle with robotic surgical equipment and be operated on remotely by a surgeon at a nearby Mobile Advanced Surgical Hospital (MASH). This system, it was hoped, would decrease wartime mortality by preventing wounded soldiers from exsanguinating before they reached the hospital. This system has been successfully demonstrated on animal models but has not yet been tested or implemented for actual battlefield casualty care.Several of the surgeons and engineers working on surgical robotic systems for the Army eventually formed commercial ventures that lead to the introduction of robotics to the civilian surgical community. Notably, Computer Motion, Inc. of Santa Barbara, CA, used seed money provided by the Army to develop the Automated Endoscopic System for Optimal Positioning (AESOP), a robotic arm controlled by the surgeon voice commands to manipulate an endoscopic camera.

Shortly after AESOP was marketed, Integrated Surgical Systems (now Intuitive Surgical) of Mountain View, CA, licensed the SRI Green Telepresence Surgery system. This system underwent extensive redesign and was reintroduced as the Da Vinci surgical system. Within a year, Computer Motion put the Zeus system into production.

Source: Medscape Visit our robotic surgery Pages for more information

History• The world's first surgical robot was the "Arthrobot", which was developed and used for the first time in Vancouver, BC, Canada in 1983. The robot was developed by a team led by Dr. James McEwen and Geof Auchinlek, in collaboration with orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Brian Day. National Geographic produced a movie on robotics which featured the Arthrobot. In related projects at that time, other medical robots were developed, including a robotic arm that performed eye surgery and another that acted as an operating assistant, and handed the surgeon instruments in response to voice commands.

• In 1985 a robot, the PUMA 560, was used to place a needle for a brain biopsy using CT guidance.

• In 1988, the PROBOT, developed at Imperial College London, was used to perform prostatic surgery.

• In 1992, the ROBODOC from Integrated Surgical Systems was introduced to mill out precise fittings in the femur for hip replacement.

Further development of robotic systems was carried out by Intuitive Surgical with the introduction of the da Vinci Surgical System and Computer Motion with the AESOP and the ZEUS robotic surgical systems.
Intuitive Surgical bought Computer Motion in 2003; ZEUS is no longer being actively marketed.The da Vinci Surgical System comprises three components: a surgeon’s console, a patient-side robotic cart with 4 arms manipulated by the surgeon (one to control the camera and three to manipulate instruments), and a high-definition 3D vision system.

Articulating surgical instruments are mounted on the robotic arms which are introduced into the body through cannulas.

The surgeon’s hand movements are scaled and filtered to eliminate hand tremor then translated into micro-movements of the proprietary instruments.The camera used in the system provides a true stereoscopic picture transmitted to a surgeon's console.

some interesting records of Robotic Surgery

• In May 1998, Dr. Friedrich-Wilhelm Mohr using the Da Vinci surgical robot performed the first robotically assisted heart bypass at the Leipzig Heart Centre in Germany.

• On September 2nd 1999, Dr. Randall Wolf and Dr. Robert Michler performed the first robotically assisted heart bypass in the USA at The Ohio State University.

• In October 1999 the world's first surgical robotics beating heart coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) was performed in Canada by Dr. Douglas Boyd and Dr. Reiza Rayman using the ZEUS surgical robot.

• On November 22, 1999 - the first closed-chest beating heart cardiac hybrid revascularization procedure is performed at the London Health Sciences Centre (London, Ontario).

In the first step of the procedure Dr. Douglas Boyd used Zeus to perform an endoscopic, single-vessel heart bypass surgery on a 55 year-old male patient's left anterior descending artery.

In the next step of the procedure William Kostuk, MD, Professor of Cardiology of the University of Western Ontario, completed an angioplasty revascularization on the patient's second occluded coronary vessel. This multi-step procedure marked one of the first integrative approaches to treating coronary disease.

• On September 7, 2001, Dr. Jacques Marescaux and Dr. Michel Gagner, while in New York, used the Zeus robotic system to remotely perform a cholecystectomy on a 68 year old female patient who was in Strasbourg, France.

• In December 2003, TAMPA, Fla. - A woman whose husband died after a doctor using a surgical robot accidentally cut two of his main blood vessels is suing the hospital. Al Greenway's widow is suing St. Joseph's Hospital, saying it's at fault for her husband's October 2002 death. Brenda Greenway says hospital administrators allowed doctors inexperienced with the $1 million robot to perform her husband's surgery, which was to remove a cancerous kidney. Greenway, a 53-year-old Desert Storm veteran and Plant High School science teacher, died when the surgeon cut his abdominal aorta, which provides blood to the abdominal organs and legs, and the inferior vena cava, the neighboring vein that returns that blood to the heart. (AP News.)

• In May 2006, The first unmanned robotic surgery took place in Italy.

• In August 2007: Dr. Sijo Parekattil of the Robotics Institute and Center for Urology (Winter Haven Hospital and University of Florida) performed the first robotic assisted microsurgery procedure denervation of the spermatic cord for chronic testicular pain.

• In February 2008, Dr. Mohan S. Gundeti of the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital performed the first robotic pediatric neurogenic bladder reconstruction. The operation was performed on a 10-year-old girl.

• On May 12, 2008, the first image-guided MR-compatible robotic neurosurgical procedure was performed at University of Calgary by Dr. Garnette Sutherland using the NeuroArm.

• In June 2008 the German Aerospace Center (DLR) presented the first robotic system for minimally invasive surgery with force-feedback in 7 dof in the tip of the instrument, distal of the 2-dof handwrist (MiroSurge).

• In January 2009, Dr. Todd Tillmanns reported results of the largest multi-institutional study on the use of da-Vinci robotic surgical system in gynecologic oncology and included learning curves for current and new users as a method to assess acquisition of their skills using the device.

• Also in January 2009, the first all-robotic-assisted kidney transplant was performed at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey by Dr. Stuart Geffner. The same team performed eight more fully robotic-assisted kidney transplants over the next six months.

• In September 2010, The Netherlands - The Eindhoven University of Technology announced the development of the Sofie (Surgeon’s Operating Force-feedback Interface Eindhoven) surgical system, the first surgical robot to employ force feedback.

In spite of its futuristic name

Robotic surgery is not performed by a Data type character from Star Trek.
Rather, robotic surgery puts a computer between the surgeon and the surgical tools
operating on the patient.
Robotic surgery incorporates the latest advances in robotics, computing, and medical imaging. In the past few years, robotic surgery has made newspaper headlines and enjoyed a rapid rise in popularity.

According to a 2005 Business Week article, about 20,000 procedures were performed using robotic surgery in 2004, compared to just 1,500 procedures in 2000.

Robotic surgery falls into the broader field of minimally invasive surgery (MIS).
MIS, also known as endoscopic surgery or keyhole surgery, was pioneered in 1987.

Endoscopic surgery uses small incisions and devices on the end of tubes, along with a camera to perform the surgery. But endoscopic surgery still requires that a surgeon manipulate those tools directly.

Robotic surgery takes the next step, which is to attach those tools to a computer and do it all remotely.With robotic surgical systems, also called computer-assisted surgery, surgeons don't move endoscopic instruments directly with their hands. Instead, surgeons sit at a console several feet from the operating table and use joysticks similar to those used in video games.

They perform surgical tasks by guiding the movement of the robotic arms in a process known as tele-manipulation. The da Vinci Robotic Surgery System was the first robotic system approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for assisting surgery.

Robots have superhuman capabilities that make surgery easier. For instance, they don't tire. Robotic arms don't have a tremor, so they can remain steady at all times and robotic wrists make it easier for surgeons to manipulate tissue and work from all kinds of angles.

The FDA, which must approve all such devices, says robotic surgical machines have a number of other advantages as well:• Robotic surgical systems can also improve depth perception, giving surgeons three-dimensional vision, compared with the two-dimensional vision they would normally get with normal endoscopic procedures.

• The surgical field can be magnified so that millimeter-sized veins appear as big as pencils.• Compared with the long instruments used in endoscopy, robotic surgical systems use smaller instruments that provide increased range of motion. This can be very helpful when operating on children.• Robotics also offers motion scaling, which means that a surgeon's gross hand movements can be reduced to fine movements, allowing for accuracy in tight spaces.
For example, with motion scaling, one inch of movement by the surgeon results in a quarter-inch movement by the robotic surgical instruments.

There are also advantages for the patient. The FDA says that robotic surgery can mean less time in the hospital along with other positives such as:

less pain and scarring
less risk of infection
less blood loss and fewer transfusions
faster recovery
quicker return to normal activities

The FDA say there may be times when the surgeon will begin a surgical procedure with the robot and then for one reason or another have to abandon it and do the surgery using traditional methods.

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with a condition that may require surgery, you owe it to yourself to learn about all of your medical options, including the most effective, least invasive surgical treatments available.

The da Vinci® Surgical System provides surgeons with an alternative to both traditional open surgery and conventional laparoscopy, putting a surgeon's hands at the controls of a state-of-the-art robotic platform. The da Vinci System enables surgeons to perform even the most complex and delicate procedures through very small incisions with unmatched precision.

Robotic Surgery vs. Life Support Devices!!

Now-a-days Robotic Surgery system has become a Life Support Device to the Modern World. These devices are used by qualified health professionals to support life in critically-ill people, in surgical settings or to improve quality of life.

Computer-Assisted (Robotic) Surgical SystemsWhat are Computer-Assisted (Robotic) Surgical Systems?

Different types of computer-assisted surgical systems can be used for pre-operative planning, surgical navigation and to assist in performing procedures. One type is computer-assisted surgical systems, commonly called robotic-assisted surgical systems or robotic surgery.
These medical devices enable the surgeon to use computer and software technology to control and move surgical instruments through one or more tiny incisions in the patient’s body (minimally invasive) for a variety of surgical procedures. The benefits of computer-assisted surgical systems can include the device’s ability to facilitate minimally invasive surgery and assist with complex tasks in areas of the body that may be difficult to navigate, as well as shorter post-operative recovery times. The device is not actually a robot because it cannot perform surgery without direct human control.
Computer-assisted surgical systems generally have several components, which may include:

A console, where the surgeon sits during surgery. The console is the control center of the system and allows the surgeon to view the surgical field and control movement of the surgical instruments and the camera (endoscope) though a 3D monitor;
The bedside cart that includes three or four hinged mechanical arms, camera (endoscope) and surgical instruments that the surgeon controls the during surgical procedures; and
A separate cart that contains supporting hardware and software components, such as an electrical surgical unit (ESU), suction/irrigation pumps, and light source for the endoscope.

Most surgeons use multiple surgical instruments and accessories with the computer-assisted surgical system, such as scalpels, forceps, graspers, dissectors, cautery, scissors, retractors and suction irrigators.

Source from- www.fda.gov

Common uses of Computer-Assisted Surgical Systems

The FDA has cleared computer-assisted surgical systems for use by trained physicians in an operating room environment for laparoscopic surgical procedures in general surgery cardiac, colorectal, gynecologic, head and neck, thoracic and urologic surgical procedures. Some common procedures that may involve computer-assisted surgical systems are gall-bladder removal, hysterectomy and prostatectomy (removal of the prostate).

Recommendations for Patients and Health Care Providers about Computer-Assisted Surgical Systems:

Health Care Providers:

Computer-assisted surgery is an important treatment option that is safe and effective when used appropriately and with proper training. The FDA does not regulate the practice of medicine and therefore does not supervise or provide accreditation for physician training nor does it oversee training and education related to legally marketed medical devices.

Instead, training development and implementation is the responsibility of the manufacturer, physicians, and health care facilities. In some cases, professional societies and specialty board certification organizations may also develop and support training for their specialty physicians. Specialty boards also maintain certification status of their specialty physicians.

Physicians, hospitals and facilities that use computer-assisted surgical systems should ensure that proper training is completed and that surgeons are appropriately credentialed. Device users should ensure they maintain their credentialing. Hospitals and facilities should also ensure that other surgical staff that use these devices complete proper training.

Users of the device should realize that there are several different models of computer-assisted surgical systems. Each model may operate differently and may not have the same functions. Users should know the differences between the models and make sure to get appropriate training on each model.

If you suspect a problem or complications associated with the use of computer-assisted surgical systems, the FDA encourages you to file a voluntary report through MedWatch, the FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting program. Healthcare personnel employed by facilities that are subject to FDA's user facility reporting requirements should follow the reporting procedures established by their facilities. Prompt reporting of adverse events can help the FDA identify and better understand the risks associated with medical devices.

Patients:

Computer-assisted surgery is an important treatment option but may not be appropriate in all situations. Talk to your physician about the risks and benefits of computer-assisted surgeries, as well as the risks and benefits of other treatment options.

Patients who are considering treatment with computer-assisted surgeries should discuss the options for these devices with their health care provider, and feel free to inquire about their surgeon’s training and experience with these devices.

Source from- www.fda.gov

To get more details about Robotic Surgery get connected with our site:

Robot Surgery System

Robot Surgery System: Brigham and Women's Physician Resource Center: Ind...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 00:34:00 +0000

Robot Surgery System: Brigham and Women's Physician Resource Center: Ind...: Brigham and Women's Physician Resource Center: Indications for Pancreatic Resection and Robotic Surgical Technique

Brigham and Women's Physician Resource Center: Indications for Pancreatic Resection and Robotic Surgical Technique

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 00:31:00 +0000

Brigham and Women's Physician Resource Center: Indications for Pancreatic Resection and Robotic Surgical Technique

Brigham and Women's Physician Resource Center: Robotic Applications in Benign Adnexal Pathology

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 00:27:00 +0000

Brigham and Women's Physician Resource Center: Robotic Applications in Benign Adnexal Pathology

Robotic Surgery Safe but Cost More than other

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 00:17:00 +0000

Robotic Surgery Safe vs. Expensive

NEW ORLEANS -- Laparoscopy for treatment of pelvic lesions was equally safe whether performed conventionally or with robotic assistance, but cost favors conventional minimally invasive surgery.Overall, there was a 7% major postoperative complication rate among patients who received conventional video-assisted laparoscopy and a 10% rate among patients who underwent minimally invasive robotic surgery, a nonsignificant difference (P=0.42, RR=0.96, 95% CI 0.58 to 1.57), Farr Nezhat, MD, of St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City, and colleagues reported at the annual American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists annual meeting.read more

Robot Surgery System

Robotics, Agent Modelling and Vision Research Groups and Resources

Robotics, Agent Modelling and Vision Research Groups and Resources:

Best Robotic Surgery Universities Around USA

Best Robotic Surgery Universities Around USA

Robotic surgery vs current issue

Robotic Surgery

Objective:

Background:

Methods:

Results:

Conclusions:

You may like following Articles also.

Future of robotic surgery

Future of Robotic Surgery:

robot for surgical procedures approved by FDA

Clinical Application and Data

Disadvantages of robotic surgery

Advantages of robot assisted surgery

Current position of robotic surgical system

Background and history of Surgical robots

Since 1921 when Czech playwright Karel Capek introduced the notion and coined the term robot in his play Rossom’s Universal Robots, robots have taken on increasingly more importance both in imagination and reality.

Social anxiety disorder often called social phobia

Social anxiety disorder vs. often called social phobia

What is social anxiety disorder?

What causes social anxiety disorder?

How is it diagnosed?

Who has social anxiety disorder?

What are the treatment options for social anxiety disorder?

Cognitive and behavioral therapy

Thoracic Patient Story you need to know

For Beverly resident Cynthia McPherson, 49, the coming of winter guaranteed not only slush and snow but also her yearly battle with pneumonia and breathing trouble.

Patient Story

The Newest Standard of Care

World's Best Top 9 Innovative Companies in Robotic System

Top Robotic Industries enlisted bellow

iRobot

Mazor Robotics

Recon Robotics

SpaceX

Lockheed Martin

PV Kraftwerker

Boston Dynamics

Ekso Bionics

Seegrid

Robotic Industries

What is a Thoracic Surgeon?

A thoracic surgeon is a medical doctor who performs operations on the heart, lungs, esophagus, and other organs in the chest. This also includes surgeons who can be called cardiothoracic surgeons, cardiovascular surgeons, general thoracic surgeons, and congenital heart surgeons.

Dry Eyes and LASIK: You may still be a candidate

Dry eyes after LASIK are so common that they occur in about half of all LASIK patients. While the condition usually is temporary and mild, significant numbers of people continue to have dry eyes for months or even years after a procedure.*

How Does LASIK Cause Dry Eyes?

Dry Eye Screening for LASIK Patients

Who Is Most at Risk of Having Dry Eyes After LASIK?

Treatment of Dry Eyes Before and After LASIK

Preventing Dry Eyes After LASIK

Dry Eye Syndrome

Dry Eye Symptoms

Dry eyes can become red and irritated, causing a feeling of scratchiness.

What Causes Dry Eyes?

Dry Eye News

Smartphone Use Linked to Dry Eye in Schoolchildren

Dry Eye News

Dry Eye Syndrome More Prevalent in Larger Cities

Dry Eye Disease High Among Office Computer Users

Reading More Slowly? Maybe It's Due to Your Dry Eyes

How Common Are Dry Eyes?

Treatment for Dry Eyes

LASIK Surgery Risks and Complications and how to avoid them

LASIK Surgery Risks and Complications

LASIK Eye Surgery Risk Factors and Limitations

LASIK Side Effects and Complications

Dry eyes after LASIK.

How To Compare Laser Eye Surgery Prices with 8 questions to ask your surgeon.

How to Compare Laser Eye Surgery Prices

Newer Technology Can Increase LASIK Cost

Other Contributors to LASIK Cost

8 Important Questions to Ask Your Surgeon About Procedure Prices

What Else You Need to Know About Laser Eye Surgery Prices

LASIK Eye Surgery Results: Are you likely to see 20/20 after LASIK?

LASIK Results: What to Expect