POLISH GAIN TECHNOLOGY, TRAINING

Eye surgeons and patients in Poland have access to new equipment and techniques thanks to two Cape Girardeau ophthalmologists.

Dr. Charles H. Cozean will visit Poland this month to train eye surgeons on his cataract removal technique. Dr. Richard Kies recently returned from Poland where he delivered a laser and equipment used to treat glaucoma and diabetic eye problems.

Both surgeons said Polish physicians are hungry for western technology and training.

"The technology they are using, we were using in World War II," Cozean said. "They have been frozen in time by the politics of socialized medicine. Socialized medicine stops technology in its tracks."

Kies said: "It's profound in terms of what they have been able to accomplish in that situation. They have been able to persevere; the Polish are very strong and mentally tough."

Cozean will visit Lublin University School of Medicine in Lublin, Poland, Sept. 12-14.

Since 1987, Cozean's practice has included lots of research and development, including work with small-incision cataract surgery and the Eximer laser. As a result, he teaches and speaks regularly at national meetings, and his courses are available through national libraries. Cozean is also a clinical professor at St. Louis University.

Dr. Zbigniew F. Zagorski of the Lublin University School of Medicine learned about Cozean's technique on cataracts and invited him to teach.

Cozean and his entire surgery team will spend three days at the hospital. They will discuss everything about the surgery from the size of the incision to the topical anesthesia to the sterile operating room.

Cozean and his team will do five or six surgeries, and Zagoriski will do one or two. About 30 doctors will observe the surgeries. The doctors will also work on eye-bank eyes as they learn the surgical technique.

In the United States about 30 percent of cataract surgery is done with a small incision, about an eighth of an inch. A soft replacement lens is inserted through the small hole and held in place by existing tissues in the eye. Such a small cut requires no stitches.

In Europe, cataract surgeons cut the eye half way open, take the cataract out and sew up the lens.

Most eye surgeries, even in the United States, are done with local anesthesia. "You stick a needle in the eye," Cozean explained. "I have never really liked that."

He learned of another surgeon doing surgery under topical anesthesia and copied his technique.

"All we do essentially is give eye drops in the eye, the same drops you get when you have an eye exam. Then we give a little tranquilizer by vein," he said.

Companies Cozean works with have agreed to send supplies to Poland. Some of the equipment will stay there.

"I think of this as a diplomatic and scientific mission," he said.

In late June and early July, Kies visited Gdansk, Poland, on a similar diplomatic mission. He helped deliver a laser used in advanced treatments of eye diseases. The trip was organized by the Polish American Congress. Kies and the team also collected $40,000 in surgical supplies to leave with the Polish ophthalmologists.

"The health care has been significantly rationed by a lack of technology," Kies said. "The doctors are well trained, but they are limited in what they can do."

As the barriers to the West have been lifted, Polish surgeons are looking for new technology, Kies said.

The laser will allow new treatments for glaucoma and diabetic patients.

Kies worked with Gdansk ophthalmologist Janusz Jablonski, chief of ophthalmology at the Government Eye Clinic in Gdansk. While there Kies also visited with Polish state officials and met with Danuta Walesa, Polish President Lech Walesa's wife.

Kies plans to coordinate a fund drive locally to send more medical supplies to Poland.