A Message From the Director of Minamiaoyama Eye Clinic
In 1997, the Minamiaoyama Eye Clinic, which was the first refractive surgery center operated by board-certified ophthalmologists, began performing refractive surgeries. This type of surgery was not popular in Japan at the time our clinic was established.
In order to provide more vision correction options for our patents, we aimed at establishing a refractive surgery
clinic that can provide high quality treatment by doctors specialized in ophthalmology and refractive surgery.
We have performed surgery on more than 50,000 eyes to date and believe that we have satisfied many patients as well as the doctors who referred them to us. LASIK has became popular in Japan recently. It is more widely known and accepted now, which may be partly due to the Internet and partly due to the improved standard of living, but more importantly, its present popularity is credited to Japanese ophthalmologists. We consider ourselves fortunate to be a part of the group that popularized this technique.
We have introduced various refractive techniques over the past 12 years, including LASIK, custom (wavefront-guided or topography-guided) LASIK, Phakic IOL, PRK, LASEK, Epi-LASIK, accommodative IOL, refractive diffractive multifocal IOL, presbyopic surgery, conductive keratoplasty (CK) , intrastromal ring segments (ICRS), riboflavin/UVA cross-linking, and corneal transplantation for keratoconus. Although we have occasionally encountered some difficulties during the initial application of new technologies, we are very happy to provide corrective options to people with a wide range of refractive errors.
We collected patient data using a good filing system. A large number of our patients return for postoperative follow-up even long after their LASIK surgery has been performed. We believe that these data are crucial as feedback to our medical practice.
We would like to continue providing evidence-based treatment by constantly learning from our patients.
Ikuko Toda, M.D., Ph.D.
