Occular Oncology
Ocular Oncology surgery refers to the treatment of a broad spectrum of conditions ranging from anterior segment tumours to posterior segment tumours. Dr Lara Sandri has two international fellowships including ocular oncology and vitreoretinal surgery and has a particular special interest in the treatment of uveal melanomas.
The services she provides at both Retina Surgery Centre and Johannesburg Eye hospital includes the diagnosis and management of pigmented and non-pigmented tumours of the caruncle, conjunctiva, and uvea. This includes squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma and metastases from primary malignancies elsewhere.
Ocular oncology also includes the investigation, diagnosis and management of intraocular lymphoma, vasoproliferative tumours, choroidal haemangiomas, and multiple retinal and optic nerve tumours.
The management of ocular tumours involves topical chemotherapy drops, conjunctival and caruncle tumour excisional biopsies, 25g transretinal choroidal biopsies, radiotherapy with ruthenium plaques and external beam radiation as well as transpupillary thermal therapy (TTT), photodynamic therapy (PDT), argon laser, cryotherapy and intravitreal chemotherapy (melphalan). In some instances enucleation of the eye is also necessary.
