Dr. O’s Blog

Mahalo Hawaii! EyeSight Hawaii was again voted one of Hawaii’s Best Laser Eye Centers by the readers of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and the MidWeek.  We are proud to have earned your trust and appreciate the continued support from our patients throughout the state.

It is such a wonderful compliment each time a patient votes for us or refers us to his/her family and friends.  This is the second award we’ve won this year and our whole staff is so excited to have received this recognition.

We look forward to continuing to provide people all over Hawaii with the best eye care and laser vision correction possible.

 Aloha and Mahalo! 

EyeSight Hawaii is proud to have earned the 2008 Best of Honolulu Award for Laser Surgery. We were selected by the United States Local Business Association (USLBA) to receive this prestigious award.

We are honored to have received this recognition of achievement for our dedication to our patients and their eye care. We continue to offer the latest technology in laser vision correction while providing the highest patient care. Our motto is Vision for Life because our patients are like family to us and we want to take care of their eyes and vision for life.

We would like to thank you all for your kind support and referrals. The greatest compliment we receive is when our patients trust us so much they refer us to their family and friends. 

We look forward to caring for your eye care needs and wish you Vision for Life.
 

Many people don’t know that it is possible to have Laser Vision Correction after having had cataract surgery. So, if you’ve had cataract surgery and are still wearing glasses, you may still be a candidate for LASIK no matter what your age. I did LASIK on my father when he was 75 years old and he now reads and drives without glasses and he loves it!

So why do people need glasses after cataract surgery? This surgery entails removing the cloudy cataract and putting in a replacement lens. There are several types of replacement lenses a patient can choose from. Traditional monofocals lenses only allow a person to see well at one distance. With this traditional type of lens, if a person needed glasses before surgery, s/he will still need glasses after surgery. Upgraded lenses such as the Crystalens allow patients to focus near, far and in between which means, no glasses.

If you are interested in Laser Vision Correction and would like to come see us for a free LASIK Consultation, please be sure to let us know about any past eye surgeries you’ve had. We look forward to helping you have Vision for Life!

March is National Eye Donor Month so I would like to take the opportunity to talk to you about donating your organs, including your eyes, yes, your eyes!

As a Corneal Specialist, I perform corneal transplant surgeries, as well as LASIK and cataract surgeries. In order to perform a corneal transplant, we need donor tissue. Most of the time, we are able to match donated tissue with a patient who needs a transplant. However, sometimes, donor tissue is not available and we are unable to proceed with a surgery and must reschedule it for a later date. This is frustrating and disappointing for both the patient and the surgeon. Once corneal transplant surgery is completed, our patients are extremely grateful to have their eyesight back and it is was possible thanks to donors.

EyeSight Hawaii works with the Hawaii Lions Eye Bank and Makana Foundation to match donor tissue with patients needing corneal transplants. I am proud to be an Associate Medical Director at the Hawaii Lions Eye Bank which is a non profit organization dedicated to restoring sight and enhancing life through eye donation and awareness. For more information, including how to become a donor, visit http://www.hlebmf.org. If you would like to be an organ donor, make sure your family knows and you have it documented. That way there is no question.

As always, we wish you Vision For Life!

Now is the time of year when many people make New Year’s Resolutions. We encourage you to add “Keep My Eyes and Vision Healthy” to your list. Many people neglect their eyes and don’t pay attention to them until there is something wrong.

For people living in sunny Hawaii, one of the most important things you should do is protect your eyes against damaging sun rays. Just wearing sunglasses is not enough. Make sure you are wearing UV protecting sunglasses. UV protection is especially important for our patients who have just undergone eye surgery but is something we recommend for everyone, even children. When you purchase sunglasses, look for UV Protecting information. You want ones the block 99-100% of both UV-A and UV-B rays. When you’re looking for suglasses for your children, you want to look for the same 99-100% UV Protection. When should children start wearing UV Protecting sunglasses? It’s never too early to start.

Note: Polarized does not mean UV Protecting, though most polarized sunglasses also have UV Protection.

 Wishing you a Happy, Healthy New Year and Vision for Life!

 EyeSight Hawaii-Dr. Olkowski

The holidays are here and many of us are rushing around looking for those perfect gifts for our loved ones and, yes, for ourselves. This is also a good time to think about helping others, even people we don’t even know. Many of us make food donations to local food closets and/or contribute to children’s toy drives and other worthy causes. At EyeSight Hawaii, we collect used eye glasses and pass them along to the Lion’s Club which distributes them to those in need. Though we collect glasses all year round, the holidays is an especially good time to have a look around and see if you’ve got any eye glasses you don’t use anymore that someone else could. Many of our LASIK patients are more than happy to bring us their glasses after they’ve had their vision corrected and we are delighted to accept them!

If you would like to dontate your old eye glasses, we accept donations in our Honolulu and Maui offices. Please call for office hours and thank you so much for your help!

Telephone: 808-735-1935
Toll Free: 877-735-1935
vision@eyesighthawaii.com

I am very pleased to announce that on Thursday, Nov 1st, I performed the first IntraLase Enabled Keratoplasty (IEK) done in Hawaii. This new technology makes corneal transplant surgery safer, with faster healing and better visual results for patients suffering from severe corneal disease or damage. Patients around the globe, and now EyeSight Hawaii patients, will be able to choose this laser technology that represents the greatest advancement in the procedure in more than 50 years. Currently, there are about ten surgeons in the United States performing the IntraLase Enabled Keratoplasty and I am proud to be the first and only surgeon in Hawaii doing IEK.

Corneal transplantation replaces a diseased or scarred cornea with a new one by having the central portion of the cornea surgically removed and replaced with corneal tissue donated through an eye bank. Before the introduction of the IEK technology, corneal transplants were traditionally performed using a handheld, bladed cookie cutter called a trephine that is stamped onto the cornea to make a circular incision with straight, vertical edges. Sutures stay in the eye for one year or longer and patients generally do not achieve full visual recovery for over a year due to increased astigmatism.

Instead of the straight vertical cut performed in trephine-initiated corneal transplantation, I now use the IntraLase laser. These cuts are uniquely shaped in patterns such as a zig-zag, top-hat or mushroom. The same exact shape is used on the patient’s cornea and the donor cornea so that they fit together like pieces of a puzzle or tongue-and-groove carpentry.  The laser’s infrared light beam is precisely focused within the cornea where microscopic bubbles are formed at a rate of 60,000 per second to establish the incision. The advantage of this technique is speedier recovery and better vision. One of the first patients on whom I performed IEK could barely see fingers held in front of her face before surgery and one day after IEK she was almost legal to drive without glasses.

EyeSight Hawaii has Hawaii’s only IntraLase laser equipped with the advanced IEK / Cornea module that allows me to perform these revolutionary new corneal transplants. I perform all surgeries in Honolulu but I do travel to Maui and the Big Island to see my patients. Here at EyeSight Hawaii, we are dedicated to providing the most advanced ophthalmic procedures and the highest patient care and welcome the opportunity to care for your eyes.

EyeSight Hawaii is pleased to offer the IntraLase Method™, a 100% blade-free technique to creating your corneal flap. This blade-free IntraLase Method™ uses a computer-guided laser to create you flap. It also enables me to tailor-make this flap based on what’s best for your eye. If you were not eligible for LASIK surgery before, you may now be a candidate for LASIK using the IntraLase Method™.

In addition to the LASIK capabilities, I am the only doctor in Hawaii to have the corneal module called the IntraLase-Enabled Keratoplasty (IEK). This is the first laser in the United States to create innovative corneal incisions for full-thickness corneal transplants, representing the greatest technological breakthrough in corneal transplantation in over 50 years.

 If you are interested in finding out if you are a LASIK candidate, we would be happy to schedule you for a complimentary LASIK consultation in our Honolulu, Kahului, Kona or Hilo office.

We are pleased to sponsor the third annual Future Physicians Symposium. We invite junior and senior high school students from all over Hawaii to join us in Kaimuki to hear several of Hawaii’s foremost physicians speak. These physicians discuss the joys and challenges of each of his/her particular medical specialty giving our guests valuable insight into the medical profession.

Attending students are also invited to submit an essay for consideration for our Scholarship. We ask the students to write about why they would like to be a physician and we have seen some wonderfully written pieces by students who will no doubt make excellent doctors. The author of the winning essay will be awarded a scholarship for $500.

This is a morning event held on a Saturday so our attendees go through quite a bit of coffee! The 2007 Future Physicians Symposium is being held on September 15 in Kaimuki. If you would more information and would like to attend, please call Lori at 735-1935 or toll free from the outer islands at 877-735-1935.