A Taiwanese patient recently had her sight restored after undergoing a highly complex operation by an eye specialist here. -- ST PHOTO: CHEW SENG KIM

A TAIWANESE patient recently had her sight restored after undergoing a highly complex operation by an eye specialist here.

The four-hour operation, conducted in January this year, involved a delicate two-step process whereby the doctor reconstructed the entire damaged surface of the patient's right eye, then performed an artificial cornea transplant on it.

It was the first time such a combination has been attempted in Singapore, and was helmed by Dr Leonard Ang, medical director of The Eye & Cornea Transplant Centre at Paragon.

The operation on the right eye cost $30,000. The left eye, which is currently in a stable condition, will be operated on within the next year.

It is believed that fewer than 20 eye surgeons in the world have the expertise to accomplish such a risky procedure, which was why the patient, insurance agent Lim Yu Shan, 39, was referred to Dr Ang last August after unsuccessful treatments in Taiwan.

She had developed severe ocular surface disease with cornea stem cell deficiency from Stevens Johnson syndrome, a condition commonly triggered off by allergy to medication, four years ago and was blind in both eyes.