First Texas Iris Implant Performed at Baptist Medical Center of San Antonio...

by Staff Contributor, May, 2013

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Dr. Sponsel and the "Saving Sight" team at Baptist Medical Center performed a revolutionary operation to replace the iris of the right eye of Ms. Sandra Cook.

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Sandra experienced severe trauma to her right eye over 40 years ago when she stabbed herself in the eye with a knife when she was 2 years old. The damaged iris resulted in a non-functioning pupil. This took away Sandra's eye's ability to regulate the light that entered her eye.

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If, as in Mrs. Cook's case, the pupil is left open wider than normal, the overabundance of light entering the eye can cause a severe and sometimes painful glare.  Sandra compared it to having a bright light constantly shone into your eye.

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Dr. Sponsel and his team replaced Ms. Cook's iris using a revolutionary process with an artificial silicone lens that mimics the iris' texture and surface features, and approximates its color.  Measurements of the iris and color information were sent to the German company that developed and manufactures the artificial iris so that her new iris matched her natural iris as nearly as possible. 

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Since the pupil of the artificial iris doesn't open and close as a natural iris does, its developer determined an optimal diameter for the pupil that covered the widest range of lighting conditions for effective sight; and, to control glare. (...see accompanying video clips)