Hospital de Ojos carried out more than 600 interventions in the interior in the last year
The Uruguay Ve initiative, implemented in February 2022, allows the Eye Hospital to have three locations in the interior of the country: North in Artigas, West in Mercedes and Center in Durazno. In the coming months, the inauguration of the East headquarters in Treinta y Tres is expected, Berta said.
In the three locations, surgeries are performed for pathologies such as cataracts, Pterygium and Chalazion. In addition, consultations with general ophthalmology and ultrasound are carried out to determine the size of the lenses used in cataract interventions.
In this sense, the center incorporated a state-of-the-art phacoemulsifier; the team uses ultrasound to break the cataract into small pieces that are then extracted by means of suction, to finally place the intraocular lenses.
Cataracts are one of the most frequent visual pathologies: 60% of the population suffers from it, especially people over 60, diabetics or taking corticosteroids. Fortunately, it is reversible through a minimally invasive procedure, with local and ambulatory anesthesia, Berta indicated.
In 2022 alone, the Hospital de Ojos performed more than 5,500 interventions for this pathology. Berta appreciated that from the implementation of the Uruguay Ve plan, users in the interior can access the same technology and qualified human resources as in Montevideo, without the need to mobilize or mobilize their families.
Finally, he affirmed that decentralization allowed reorganizing the activity in the hospital, with an increase in the supply of numbers in the polyclinic –especially in subspecialties such as retina, cornea, glaucoma and strabismus, among others- and improvement in surgical productivity.
