At the time of our birth the lens inside our eyes is clear. With growing age, the lens gets cloudy. This opacification is called Cataract. Cataract is no disease, it is an age change. Everybody gets Cataract, we only have to get old enough.
If the lens gets so cloudy that it bothers you – usually when the visual acuity drops below 70% – a Cataract operation is a worthwile opportunity. During this operation the cloudy lens is exchanged with a clear lens via a 2 mm incision. This operation can be performed within ten minutes and is the most common procedure worldwide. We use topical anesthesia in most cases. If you are to scared we offer a short-term general anesthesia. The price for the whole procedure is approximately 2100 CHF for one eye.
Glaucoma is defined as an elevated intraocular pressure, which causes damage to the optic nerve and hence visual field defects.
The eye is filled with liquid. This liquid is constantly produced and drained off. Sometimes the drainage is blocked and hence the intraocular pressure to high. This leads to an impaired circulation especially at the side of the optic nerve – as the blood has to enter the eye from “outside”. A chronically elevated intraocular pressure is not painful. If this situation persists for months and years, the optic nerve gets damaged irreversibly.
Since the 1990s we have a rich armanentarium of pressure-lowering eye drops. Like taking blood-pressure medication for the treatment of high blood pressure, we can use these special eye drops to lower the intraocular pressure.
With these modern eye drops the number of glaucoma surgeries has dropped by 90%. If we can not control the intraocular pressure with these drops, we offer a number of different laser procedures to lower the pressure. If we still can not achieve the desired target pressure, we use surgery.
With our team of experienced specialists we offer diagnostics and treatment for every refractive error like myopia, hyperopia, presbyopia, astigmatism and keratoconus. Likewise we are specialized in low-vision solutions.
The back half of our eye is lined with a network of 130 million nerve cells – the retina. The optical center of the retina is called macula. A very precious area, because here is where the nerve cells are positioned very close to each other hence enabling a high resolution. With this area we can read and recognize faces.
Unfortunately these nerve cells are not programed to keep up as long as the other cells in our body: one nerve cell after the other starts to quit. At the age of 70, every fourth person has a macular degeneration. With the age of 80 we can see a macular degeneration in every person. This process runs very slowly for years and is called dry age related macular degeneration (dry AMD).
Every tenth person with dry AMD shows additionally an accumulation of fluid in the retina, which is called wet AMD. In wet AMD the vision deteriorates within weeks and months. In this situations we can inject specific medication into the eye under sterile conditions in our operating theaters. The medication leads to a disappearance of this unwanted fluid-accumulation.
Children receive special attention in our clinic. We run a vision school adapted to the special requirements of our little patients.
We offer diagnostics and treatment in all areas of children`s ophthalmology, especially strabism, amblyopia (lazy eye), refractive errors, neuro-ophthalmology, infections.
An eye examination in children usually takes longer than in adults.
In many cases, if the visual acuity does not develop optimally, we have to dilate the pupils during the initial examination with an eye drop. Such an examination can take 90 minutes.
We kindly ask you to make appointments for children on a Wednesday.
In an emergency, come to us directly.
Call us if possible so that we know when you are coming.
Telephone number: +423 399 0424
Outside of business hours we ask you to contact either the
Kantonsspital St. Gallen, Telephone Number +41 71 494 1111
or the
Landeskrankenhaus Feldkirch, Telephone Number +43 5522 303
