Anastasios John
Kanellopoulos, M.D.
External Diseases, Cornea
Transplantation &
Refractive Surgery.
Director,
LaserVision.gr Eye Institute
Associate Professor of Ophthalmology
8 May 2004
Mr. Uri Geller
Re: Abid
TANOLI
Dear Mr. Geller:
Thank you very much for your
interest in Abid. We did not contact you
earlier, as we wanted to have significant follow-up information on his
postoperative course in order to convey to you the diagnostic conclusions, as
well as the procedures that Abid underwent during our care over the last three
weeks. I would first like to introduce
my self. I am a cornea transplant surgeon that has moved to
Just to summarize his clinical
situation, we saw him for the first time on April 19, 2004, at which time his
visual acuity in the right eye was count fingers at 50 cm and in the left eye,
just bare light perception (questionable).
The eyelid movements from the very significant face burn were almost
non-existent. He has had several plastic
surgical procedures on both of his eyelids and as a result, the right eye has a
significant tarsorrhaphy, which means the upper and under eyelid are sutured
together and permanently heal together.
This was done in order to reduce the amount of the surface of the eye
that is exposed to the external factors and reduce the chance that the surface
part of the eye could deteriorate. He
underwent a procedure where the front part of his eye was covered with opaque
tissue in order to protect the front part of the eye, the cornea, from
perforating due to exposure to external factors. That eye appeared to be his good eye. We had some visualization of the inner parts
of the eye, and on ultrasound, the anatomy appears to be normal.
His left eye was basically
written off by the fellow clinicians in
Uri Geller
Page 2
8 May 2004
Re: Abid T
We entertained the possibility
of recovering some vision in his left eye.
We had clinical signs that this eye had the ability to discriminate
between red and green light, and went ahead with a team consisting of a retinal
surgeon and an ocular plastic Mr.
surgeon to perform a
kerato-prosthesis, where the front part of the eye is replaced with a structure
of plastic and corneal transplant tissue in order to create a window of the eye
to the outside world. Following that,
the retinal surgeon corrected a retinal detachment using laser procedures and
silicone oil. The plastic surgeon took
skin grafts from behind his eye in order to reconstruct his lower eyelid. As a result, over the past two weeks his left
eye has been able to recover visual acuity of count fingers at 10 cm. His visual potential remains guarded, and
time will tell if we are able to permanently rehabilitate this eye in a
significant way, which I should underline was basically considered lost.
I am including pre- and
postoperative photo’s of the left eye.
With regard to his right eye,
we had the ability to perform several clinical evaluations. The right eye has the handicap of not having
any muscle in his upper eyelid to protect the eye when it is closed. Therefore, any procedure performed in the
right eye would always run the risk of extensive exposure to the external
factors, and the possibility of failure.
We had planned on 4 May 2004 to perform a penetrating keratoplasty,
which would change his cornea with new, donated tissue, but were unable to
perform this procedure due to anesthesia problems, although we tried to
anesthetize the eye twice. However, due
to extensive scarring, the anesthesia disappeared within minutes and we were
unable to proceed with the surgery under local anesthesia. Therefore, we tried general anesthesia, an
entity that was very difficult on the first procedure, and impossible on May
4th, since a team of four anesthesiologists in one of the most prestigious
hospitals in Athens were unable to intubate him due to the significant
strictures that he has in his neck from the chemical burn and the inability to
safely visualize the windpipe during employment of the anesthesia.
I felt, it should be
considered too much of a risk at this point in time for a procedure that would
give him some visual acuity back, but with questionable longevity. However, we were nevertheless able to remove
some of the scarring that he had on the surface of that eye, and are hopeful he
will gain more vision from that eye.
We have all this time started
him on special medications in the right eye, which under our care was also
diagnosed with significant glaucoma (high pressure). He has responded well with
better pressure control on these medications that are also available in his
country.
With a special video device we
have been able to have him read, and this has been very rewarding. His
expectations are quite high (and I do not blame him). We have to though, to be
very cautious with his progress, in order to do more good than harm.
Although we are a private
center we have provided all care, medications and materials to Abid from our
funds and we dearly appreciate your initiative as well to help with his
travels. Within the next few weeks I feel we will be able to finalize our plans
for now and have him return home.
Please feel free to contact me
for any additional information, and I truly look forward to meeting you if your
travels bring you to
Sincerely,
A. John Kanellopoulos, M.D.
AJK:mlg
Eye
Institute for Laser