Japan Suspends Optic Practice Over Eye Infections

Japanese health authorities said Wednesday they had suspended operations of a Tokyo eye doctor after 67 patients who received corrective laser surgery in his practice reported eye infections.

"It is true that I failed to check the surgery equipment properly," the Tokyo surgeon, Tomoo Mizoguchi, told a media conference broadcast by NHK television, in which he apologised for the mass eye infections.

A district public health office said the 67 patients had contracted a contagious disease and that most had suffered cornea infections after undergoing vision correction surgery in the practice since late last year.

The office warned that more infections may be reported since hundreds had been treated at the practice in Tokyo's glitzy Ginza shopping district.

Two people had been hospitalised, public broadcaster NHK said.

Vision correction laser surgery has rapidly grown popular in Japan, with some 450,000 people estimated to have received the treatment last year alone.

Source-AFP
SRM