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Professor Develops New, Safer Eye Surgery Technique
Dr. Roger F. Steinert, director of cornea, refractive and cataract surgery in UC Irvine Health Sciences and his team developed a new laser surgery technique to perform cornea-transplant surgery without handheld surgery blades.
This new technique can improve recovery time for patients. The team operated on 14 donated human corneas.
Cornea transplants usually require stitches to stay in place for years after the surgery, but with the laser-based surgery, suture removal may be as soon as three months after the surgery.
Clinical trials are expected to start this summer at UCI.
Researchers Learn More About Iron Overload Risks
UC Irvine and other researchers in five other medical centers in the United States and Canada found that elevated iron blood test levels were most prevalent in Asians and Pacific Islanders. Caucasians were found to have the highest genetic tendency to develop hemochromatosis, but high blood iron levels were found less commonly in African-Americans, Latinos and Native Americans.
Hemochromatosis is a disorder caused by abnormally high levels of iron, which can increase the risk of disorders, such as diabetes, arthritis, liver disease and heart disease.

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