ミャンマー連邦における超音波白内障手術指導

Union of Myanmar is the Buddhist country with the population of 55 millions. It is military government and they are faced economic sanctions by U.S. and European countries because of human rights issue.
In 1998, I was requested to teach phacoemulsification and aspiration（PEA）cataract surgery for the ophthalmologists in Myanmar by Dr. Myo Mint, technical officer in Ministry of Public Health.
Since then, actually from February 1999 until now, my team visited Myanmar 15 times and conducted Medical Missions.
There are about 200 ophthalmologists in Myanmar and 20 government hospitals with ophthalmology department. Yangon Eye Hospital and Mandalay Eye Hospital are playing a crucial role in training the students and residents.
At that time in 1999, the cataract surgery conducted in Myanmar was the old style procedure which needs 12mm wound size and suture. In Japan, PEA cataract surgery had become common as the general procedure with 3mm wound size, no need for suture, short surgical time and good visual acuity after surgery. In Myanmar, however, there was no PEA machine and instruments. We, therefore, set up a medical team, including ophthalmologists, nurses and engineers, and started to conduct medical mission activities with a focus on Yangon Eye Hospital, in order to prevail PEA cataract surgery in Myanmar.
First, we donated good operation microscope and PEA machine to Yangon Eye Hospital. Until now, we have conducted cataract surgeries on about 450 patients, mainly at Yangon and Mandalay Eye Hospital. At each time, we donated medical substances, instruments, and IOLs from many eye care companies for the people suffering from cataract in Myanmar.
As for the surgeon training, we have conducted the Wet Lab and On-Site training and hold the Myanmar-Japan Ophthalmic Surgery Conference to exchange opinions. Also, until now, we have invited and accepted 8 Burmese ophthalmologists for one month each to our clinic for teaching PEA cataract surgery.

四国医学雑誌 : http://www.tokushima-u.ac.jp/med/research/shikoku_acta_medica.html