Implantable Contact Lens Surgery to be Performed in Tennessee After Recent FDA Approval

The newly FDA-approved surgery improves vision in patients for whom LASIK could not help

Nashville, TN (PRWEB) April 15, 2006 -- Dr. Ming Wang, M.D., Ph.D., Clinical Associate Professor of Ophthalmology of the University of Tennessee and Director of Wang Vision Institute announces today that the center is scheduled to be one of the First centers in Tennessee to perform the newly FDA-approved implantable contact lens (ICL) surgery for high myopia patients who thus far can not benefit from LASIK. ICL represents a major breakthrough in vision surgery technology.

Dr. Ming Wang was the First in the state to perform the Implantable Contact Lens Surgery during research of the procedure and now performs this procedure in Tennessee after the recent FDA approval.

Dr. Wang’s patients receiving the revolutionary new ICL implant after the recent FDA approval are: 20- year old golf-instructor, Seth Morford, and Penny Duncan from Florida. Ms. Duncan has been waiting on the approval of this surgery for over three years. The ICL surgery is scheduled to be performed by Dr. Ming Wang on April 19, 2006, at HEALTHSOUTH Nashville Surgery Center.

In an ICL procedure, a surgeon places a thin piece of contact lens inside the eye to correct the vision. The patients are expected to have much improved vision with this new type of contact lens, but without the hassle and risk of wearing a contact lens on the eye’s surface. FDA studies of the ICL show that this procedure is safe and effective and offers excellent vision.

Dr. Wang explains, “Before the advent of such wonderful new implantable contact lens technology, many of our patients who wanted vision correction could not have it (the surgery) due to their advanced degree of nearsightedness and poor vision. They do not qualify for LASIK.”

The introduction of the new ICL technology is expected to significantly change the lives of patients who have very bad eyesight due to their advanced myopia. Dr. Wang was the first surgeon in the state to perform ICL as a part of research a few years ago. In the past 5 years, the FDA conducted three phases of extensive clinical trials on the device and found it to be safe and effective in correcting high degrees of myopia.

On December 23, 2005, the FDA approved the ICL. Dr. Wang, who himself was a former FDA panel member, was enthusiastic and excited about the FDA approval of the ICL since, as he put it, “we now finally have something to help the group of patients who need our help the most.”

A Harvard and MIT graduate (magna cum laude), Dr. Wang is one of the few LASIK surgeons in the world today who holds a doctorate degree in laser physics. He has performed over 25,000 LASIK procedures including on over 3,000 doctors. He introduced many new vision technologies in recent years to the state, including bladeless LASIK, the C-CAP procedure to correct LASIK complications and CustomVue wavefront technology. An inventor and US patent holder of a new biotechnology to restore vision in terminally corneal blind patients, Dr. Wang performed the world’s first laser artificial cornea implantation, and his patients have come from over 40 states in the US and from over 55 countries worldwide.

For more information about Dr. Wang’s new ICL surgery, please contact Alanna J. Napier, at 615-480-3816 or anapier@nhousead.com or contact Dr. Ming Wang at Wang Vision Institute at 651-321-8881, drwang@wangvisioninstitute.com, www.wangvisioninstitute.com.

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