A long-standing friendship between two ophthalmologists has broadened treatment options for residents in Lyon and surrounding counties.
Dr. Gregory M. Fox, a vitreoretinal surgeon with Retina Associates in Shawnee Mission, comes to Emporia once a month to see patients through Reynolds and Anliker Eye Physicians and Surgeons office at 1301 W. 12th Ave.
Fox and Mike Reynolds met shortly after medical school.
“Dr. Reynolds and I were residents together in training in Miami a couple of years ago,” Fox said with a laugh.
Reynolds and Anliker had been referring patients to Fox for specialized treatment, primarily for problems involving retinas.
“They had sent patients up to the Kansas City area and found that a lot of their patients found the travel difficult,” Fox said.
Because the patient load was great enough, Fox began coming to the Emporia office about two years ago. Here, he performs office-based treatments that are more convenient for patients.
If a patient needs more invasive procedures that require more sophisticated equipment — “all the bells and whistles — we actually bring the patients up to Kansas City and do the surgery at Shawnee Mission Hospital,” he said.
The hospital has a homey environment, with private rooms that allow family members to stay with them after surgery and overnight; in the morning, they go to Fox’s Shawnee Mission office for a checkup before going home.
In Emporia, Fox focuses primarily on retina-related ailments, often treating diabetes-related retinal problems, macular degeneration or detached retinas. Treatments usually are done in the Emporia office, though more complicated procedures sometimes need to shift to the Shawnee Mission office.
“If your retina detaches and the center vision is still good, we’re going to do your surgery that night,” Fox said. “We’re not going to do it when I come there next.”
Post-operative care can be done close to the patient’s home, relieving the patient of finding someone to take him or her to the metro area.
Macular degeneration continues to be a significant problem, particularly for the aging population, Fox said.
He recommended that people who are 50 and older get checkups regularly and pay close attention to any deterioration or oddities in sight.
“They need to be covering one eye at a time,” Fox said, to test for waving or distortion.
Macular degeneration involves deterioration or breakdown of the macula, a small area in the retina that allows people to see fine details clearly and perform activities like reading and driving. Both near and far vision can be affected and some activities, like reading or threading a needle, can become difficult or impossible, according to information from the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
Symptoms include:
• words on a page look blurred
• a dark or empty area appears in the center of vision
• straight lines look distorted
The disease comes in two varieties. “Wet” macular degeneration, which accounts for about 10 percent of all cases, happens when abnormal blood vessels form underneath the retina at the back of the eye. The new blood vessels leak fluid or blood and blur central vision; vision loss may be rapid and severe.
“Dry” macular degeneration is most common for older individuals and is caused by aging and thinning of the macular tissues; it can progress to “wet” macular degeneration.
Combined, the disorder is the leading cause of severe vision loss in Caucasians over 65, according to the American Academy of Opthamology.
Caught in the early stage, though, treatment is available and the odds for success — limiting vision loss — are good.
“This is very effective and helps about 90 percent of patients to avoid further vision loss,” Fox said. “Thirty to 40 percent may have improvement.”
If the dried scars involved in wet macular degeneration are well developed, the treatment is not helpful.
“It’s something we can do for cases of recent onset of the disease,” Fox said. “It doesn’t make the scar go away. It just prevents scar” development.
“The other disease that’s just rampaging is diabetes and diabetes, of course, affects the retina,” Fox said.
Laser treatments, done locally, can prevent bleeding and blindness for retina problems involving diabetes.
“There’s a ton of different and unusual retina things we take care of,” he said. “We also are involved in research projects, looking at new techniques, medications. Some of our patients from Emporia get involved in those, if they’re interested.”
Fox graduated from the University of Notre Dame and earned his medical degree at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor.
He served his ophthalmology residency and medical retina fellowship at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, then completed a fellowship in vitreoretinal surgery at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich.
Fox received the Lang Award for Top Two Students in Medical School Class at Michigan and the Joint Service Commendations for Meritorious Service while working as an assistant professor of surgery at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md.
Prior to joining Retina Associates, Fox worked as vitreoretinal surgeon with Hunkeler Eye Centers, the Department of Ophthalmology at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, and as a medical officer for the Ophthalmic Devices Branch of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, Md.
He is author of several scientific papers, with research activities including serving as principal and co-investigator for studies focusing on treatment of wet and dry macular degeneration, evaluation of treatments for patients with diabetic retinopathy, retinal vein occlusion, and diabetic retinal edema.