Posts Tagged ‘#intraocular #lasersurgery’

Schulze Surgery Center Celebrates Its 20 Year Anniversary!

We are happy to announce that February, 2017 marks our 20th consecutive year of operation.  In the 1990’s, Dr. Schulze Jr & Sr recognized  the need for a venue for affordable, convenient, and high quality surgery for our cataract and refractive surgery patients.  

Prior to that time, all eye surgeries were performed in the hospital, and while quality was good, the size and bureaucracy of the hospitals did not lend themselves to efficiency, and costs to the patient were roughly double (and, in some documented cases, up to ten times as high) what was spent on facility fees in the ambulatory surgery center setting.  Although Dr. Schulze, Sr. had long wanted to build a surgery center, Georgia state law prevented him from doing so, mainly because the powerful hospital lobby was against any competition for their services.  After all, they had a government sponsored monopoly on surgery, and could essentially charge whatever they wanted for their services.

But the laws changed in the mid ’90’s, and Dr. Schulze, Jr and Sr teamed up to build the first outpatient surgery center specializing in eye surgery in coastal Georgia.  Construction took place in 1996, and we opened our doors for our first surgeries in 1997.  Since that time, we’ve had the opportunity to serve tens of thousands of #cataract and #LASIK patients, saving our patient base millions of dollars in the process as compared to what they would have spent in the hospital setting.  More importantly, however, we have been able to provide first class care to an entire generation of patients, and we look forward to carrying on these traditions of quality and innovation for generations to come.

 

Dr. Ridley’s Gift to the World: The little known story behind the development of the intraocular lens

Here’s a little eye surgery trivia for you. This canopy from a British Spitfire fighter plane gave Sir Harold Ridley the idea for the intraocular lens. A fighter pilot in the Second World War was shot down and a fragment of the canopy entered his eye.

Normally, the eye rejects any foreign body with a violent inflammatory immune response. In the case of the fighter pilot, however, the eye remained quiet. Dr Ridley realized he could make clear lenses out of the same material of the canopy and implant these lenses in the eyes of patients who had their natural lens removed with cataract surgery.

Thus was born the intraocular lens (IOL) and, thanks to Dr Ridley’s amazing insight, tens of millions of patients who would otherwise be blind have had their vision restored.  Sadly, Dr. Ridley was vilified by the medical establishment during most of his career, and it wasn’t until near the end of his life that his contributions were appreciated.  

728 E. 67th Street,
Savannah, GA 31405
Phone: (912) 352-3120