Dr Nga Mai Duong

Corneal and External Diseases Department

Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology Vietnam

Attending these sessions allowed me to observe a wide range of corneal and external eye diseases including dry eye, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, corneal dystrophy, keratitis.

My name is Nga Mai Duong, doctor of Corneal and External Eye Diseases Department of Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology. It was my great honour to be awarded the Asia Corneal Society – Santen Asia Educational Observership Grant that supported my corneal observership at the Singapore National Eye Centre from 30 October to 10 November 2017. The past 2-week corneal observership was a great time that I will never ever forget in my life. I had a great chance to visit and learn in one of the best eye hospital in the Asia, which has many modern equipment and beautiful landscape.

That was my first trip to Singapore. I was afraid that I would feel strange when I first come to SNEC. Fortunately, all staff was very gentle and kindly so that I got acquainted very quickly. The learning schedule was very clear. It was divided into sessions at the clinic and sessions at the operation theatre. My learning objective for that 2-week period was keratoconus and some managements of this condition including Deep Lamellar Keratoplasty and Collagen Cross Linking. I was fortunate to attend many sessions of A/Prof Lim Li at the corneal clinic and the OT, who is an expert in keratoconus at the SNEC. I had the chance to observe her performing DALK for patients with keratoconus at the OT and examining many patients with keratoconus at the clinic C. The clinic was well-organized. There was one contact lens fitting room beside her examination room. Patients who was indicated to use contact lenses or needed to change contact lenses would be sent to the next room to fit contact lenses. I observed many keratoconus patients who had good result after DALK or CXL. I have learned a lot from A/Prof Lim Li including not only professional knowledge, but also the kindly explanation to the patients. Those are valuable experiences that I can bring to my hometown and use in clinical practice in my hospital.

At the corneal clinic, I also met many famous ophthalmologists, friendly fellow and residents. I had chance to attend several sessions of Prof. Donald Tan, A/Prof Jodhbir Mehta, Dr Khor Wei Boon, Dr Anshu Arundhati and Dr Ti Seng Ei. Attending these sessions allowed me to observe a wide range of corneal and external eye diseases including dry eye, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, corneal dystrophy, keratitis. I had also seen many patients who underwent DALK, PK, DSAEK, DMEK, DSAEK after failure PK, Kpro and learned how to manage the patients after corneal transplantation through the examination and discussion with doctors at the clinic C.

Beside the clinical aspect, I could observe various corneal surgeries at the operation theatre. In addition to DALK for keratoconus, which was one of my learning objectives, I had chance to observed DSAEK surgery for bullous keratopathy, cataract surgery, pterygium surgery using fibrin glue. Especially, I had chance to observe A/Prof Jodhbir Mehta performing femto cataract surgery and "FLAPS" (Femtosecond laser-assisted pterygium surgery) by using one mobile versatile femtosecond laser machine. Furthermore, I had opportunity to observe Prof Donald Tan performing osteo-odonto keratoprosthesis surgery combined with tube shunt implantation that I had never ever seen before. I was impressed with a big surgical team of corneal surgeon, glaucoma surgeon, dental surgeon, anesthetist, nurses and hope that this procedure will be performed in my hospital in the near future.

I am sincerely grateful to the Asia Cornea Society for this grant and the opportunity to come and learn at the Singapore National Eye Centre. I would like to thank Ms Kapricia Pang for helping me throughout my application and thank Ms Rhonda for the warm welcome at SNEC and helped during my stay at Singapore. I would like to express my gratitude to all staffs that I met at the SNEC during my 2-week corneal observership, especially Professor Donald Tan, Associate Professor Jodhbir Mehta, and Associate Professor Lim Li and Doctor Khor Wei Boon. I have received many benefits and experiences which help me strengthen my knowledge and improve my professional skill. I hope that this corneal observership program will be continued and strongly recommend other young ophthalmologists to apply for this grant.