WARRINGTON Hospital is the first in the country to buy a new state-of-the-art OPTOS machine which will revolutionise the way patients with serious eye conditions, including diabetic retinopathy, are managed.
The Ophthalmic team at Warrington and Halton NHS Foundation Trust is delighted to receive the new diagnostic machine, worth over £200,000. It will primarily be used to monitor patients with diabetic eye disease, but there are many other ophthalmic conditions it will be used to detect.
Diabetic retinopathy – a complication of diabetes where blood vessels in the eye are damaged – does not tend to cause any symptoms in the early stages, but without prompt treatment can cause permanent blindness. Screening can detect problems before it affects vision, and OPTOS allows this scan to be undertaken quickly and easily, and with minimal time spent in hospital – something essential during COVID and one of the driving forces behind purchasing the machine.
The prevalence of diabetes-related eye disease is 40% in the diabetic population and it is estimated that the number of people with diabetes will rise to 4 million in UK by 2025 – this, together with increasing life expectancy, poses daunting prospects on the current diabetic eye service. It is vitally important these patients are monitored.
The Optos Silverstone Advanced is a wide field fundus camera that captures images of the central, mid-peripheral and far peripheral retina. The images captured are wider than an ophthalmologist could see with a detailed face to face examination.
The Ophthalmic team are delighted to receive the new equipment
