Built on a 150,000 sq ft area on a five-acre plot at Banjara Hills, just besides the TDP's state headquarters, the institute provides systematic in-patient and out-patient services to accommodate the varying needs of different segments of the society. All its programmes are funded by corporates like Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Bausch & Lomb, Prasad Film Laboratories, and Health Care Marketing Services, etc.

Says Vijaya Ramam, deputy director of LVPEI, "This is a nonprofit, charitable organisation and the goal is to serve the underprivileged segments in the society and offer them comprehensive eyecare services."

About 75 to 100 cases of cataract are operated by phacoemulsification process everyday and the patients are charged depending upon their capacity.

While the eye centre offers the affluent sections semi-private, private or dealer's packages, the poor patients are treated free-of-cost, says Vijaya Ramam.

Recently, LVPEI installed the non-thermal laser required for photodynamic therapy, a new technology for treatment of wet age-related macula degeneration (AMD).

AMD is a degenerative condition of the centre of retina (macula) and affects individuals over the age of 50 years. Though the cause of AMD is unknown, tobacco consumption is a suspect. The symptoms include difficulty in seeing at a distance, distortion of vision in the centre, and difficulty in seeing straight lines.

There are two forms of AMD-dry and the wet. Currently, there is no treatment for the dry form of AMD, which is more prevalent today. The wet form, which is very serious and responsible for 90 per cent of vision loss, is characterised by an abnormal growth of vessels behind macula, which leads to bleeding and fluid accumulation, thereby affecting vision. Medical experts estimate that they diagnose approximately five lakh cases of wet AMD every year. The photodynamic therapy, which is a minimally invasive procedure, uses a photosensitive dye called Visudyne, which is marketed by Ciba Vision, the sole manufacturers of the product, for the treatment of wet AMD.

Explains Dr Taraprasad Das, director of Smt Kanuri Santamma Retina Vitreous Centre: "AMD is a condition that causes a progressive loss of central vision. This new therapy will help slow down the progression towards the loss of central vision."