Could an innovation developed by an eye surgeon in Jacksonville one day dramatically reduce the need for corneal transplants around the world?
For more than two decades, Dr. Arun C. Gulani has pursued that possibility, challenging one of the most accepted pathways in corneal surgery: corneal transplant.
Gulani asks: Before replacing a patient’s cornea, how much vision can still be restored through the cornea they already have?
It is a question that has brought patients with complex corneal scars from across the United States and around the world to Gulani Vision Institute.
Some arrive facing the prospect of corneal transplantation. Others have already undergone multiple procedures or traveled from specialist to specialist searching for another option.
Through his proprietary, trademarked, micron-precision laser technique, LaZrPlastique, Gulani has treated numerous patients with corneal scarring. In appropriately selected eyes, his approach is designed to rehabilitate the patient’s own cornea while pursuing what Gulani considers the true endpoint of any eye surgery: vision.
“It’s not just, ‘I can see light,’” Gulani said. “I aspire for 20/20.”
Corneal scarring can result from complications of LASIK, cataract surgery and other procedures; and from contact lens infections, trauma, corneal diseases and other causes. Traditionally, severely affected patients may require corneal transplantation.
Transplantation remains an important and sometimes necessary surgery. But it can involve donor tissue, sutures, prolonged recovery and the possibility of rejection.
Gulani’s work asks whether, in selected patients, another path may exist.
“If you’ve got a scar,” Gulani said, “the question I ask is whether we can restore vision through that patient’s own cornea before considering replacing it.”
That philosophy has resonated not only with patients, but with renowned eye surgeons themselves who refer such patients to him from across the nation and world.
And with those referrals, something unusual has happened on the First Coast: a growing trend toward medical tourism.
Patients and their families travel to Jacksonville, stay in local hotels, eat in local restaurants, shop in local stores, book tee times and more while undergoing treatment and recovery.
One patient from Germany described how a search for vision introduced him to Jacksonville.
“I consulted renowned eye surgeons in Germany, Spain, Dubai and across the United States,” the patient wrote. “My research led me to Dr. Gulani. Along the way, I also discovered Jacksonville — a city I might otherwise never have experienced.”
But it is not only patients who are coming.
Surgeons, researchers and ophthalmic industry leaders have traveled to Gulani Vision Institute to observe his work, while Gulani has spent years traveling internationally to teach surgeons his concepts and surgical techniques.
He has been invited at prestigious podiums across the United States, Europe and Asia, and this week, he will be in New Orleans speaking to fellow ophthalmologists at the American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting.
His clinical experience treating corneal scars is also being documented academically through the scientific peer-review process and has drawn recognition from leaders in his field.
“Dr. Gulani is a generational genius,” wrote Harvard-trained, internationally renowned eye surgeon Dr. Ming Wang. “I call him the ‘Mozart of eye surgery’ because of his extraordinary ability to intuitively compose innovative surgical solutions with the artistry of a masterpiece.”
The implications could extend far beyond Jacksonville.
Corneal scarring affects millions worldwide, with some of the greatest challenges occurring in developing regions where access to donor corneas and advanced transplant surgery may be limited.
But Gulani says the ultimate measure of his work would not be how many patients the world sends to him. It would be how many surgeons he can teach.
Inventor of award-winning LASIK surgery instruments and custom-designed cataract surgical techniques, and founder of the world’s first eye surgical SPA, Gulani said, “Of all the innovations I’ve done in my profession, this, talking from a humanity point of view, is perhaps the biggest impact ever.”
