New Technology Gives New View of Eye

In this instance, Dr. Bhairavi Kharod is a photographer, using a state-of-the-art camera to examine a patient's cornea. That camera is the Pentacam. Dr. Kharod at UAMS' Jones Eye Institute, calls the technology revolutionary.

"Unfortunately, up until now, we didn't have any ways of truly detecting any structural or functional problems with the cornea," Dr. Kharod says.

With the click of the mouse, the Pentacam takes more than 25-thousand image points, and doctors use those images, to anticipate possible diseases like "thinning of the cornea," which can lead to a patient needing a Corneal transplant.

Dr. Kharod also uses the Pentacam before patients undergo lasik surgery.

"Because a lot of times, unfortunately, lasik patients may have those structurally unsafe corneas standard methods would not be able to detect."

The Pentacam is the only one in Arkansas and one of only 25 in the country.