Dr. Sanjay Rao MD

Medical Director, Lakeside Eye Clinic

Member of the Healthcare Council

Council Member Biography

Sanjay Rao, MD, is the Medical Director and Director of Cornea and Refractive Surgery at the Lakeside Eye Clinic in Chicago. He was previously the Director of Cornea and Refractive Surgery at the University of Chicago. He has clinical expertise in diseases of the cornea and is a high volume cataract, LASIK, and corneal transplant surgeon. Dr. Rao works extensively with many new refractive technologies and presbyopia treatments including accommodative and multifocal intraocular lenses, custom ablation/wavefront LASIK, conductive keratoplasty, femtosecond lasers, and corneal inlays. He also heads the research division at Lakeside Eye Clinic which focuses on new refractive technologies, herpes keratitis, dry eye treatments, novel pharmaceuticals, and ocular pharmaceutical delivery systems. Dr. Rao serves as a principal investigator for several industry-sponsored clinical trials and as a scientific advisory board member for several pharmaceutical and device companies. (This is me - Update Profile)

Employment History

2007 - Unspecified: Medical Director, Lakeside Eye Clinic
2005 - 2007: Director of Cornea and Refractive Surgery, CHICAGO EYE INSTITUTE
2003 - 2005: Director of Cornea and Refractive Surgery, THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICAL CENTER

GLG News^SM Analyses by Sanjay Rao(?)

Opinions and analyses expressed in GLG News are solely those of the author. See the Terms of Use for details.

Impact of the Avastin/Lucentis controversy on the rest of ophthalmology

March 28, 2007

Analysis of:Retinal specialist on the Avastin/Lucentis Controversy | patentdocs.typepad.com

This article describes the perspective of a retinal specialist on the Avastin/Lucentis controversy. In mid-February the National Institutes of Health announced that it would conduct a head to head trial comparing the effectiveness of Lucentis and Avastin for the treatment of wet age related macular degeneration. Both drugs are made by Genentech, but only Lucentis is FDA-approved. In their current dosing regimens, the cost of treatment with Avastin is only between 1-3% of the cost of Lucentis. Current projections suggest that the cost to treat the half million patients in the U.S. with wet macular degeneration is greater than $10 billion per year. $10 billion is more than the entire Medicare budge for all of ophthalmology.t

Multifocal contact lenses unlikely to impact market for surgical correction

March 21, 2007

Analysis of:Better Vision Without Looking Your Age | www.nytimes.com

This New York Times article describes many of the vision correction options available to individuals with presbyopia. Because of the growing population of baby boomers, there is significant public interest in options that allow individuals freedom from reading glasses. Multifocal contact lenses which provide distance, intermediate, and near vision correction are discussed. Also discussed is surgical correction of presbyopia. Current options for surgical correction of presbyopia include multifocal intraocular lenses, conductive keratoplasty, and accommodative intraocular lenses. In clinical trials for presbyopia are corneal inlays, scleral expansion bands, and LASIK for presbyopia.

Alcon's Aqualase System: A safer approach to cataract surgery?

March 21, 2007

Analysis of:AquaLase shows trend toward less foveal thickening in diabetic patients | www.osnsupersite.com

This article presents the results of a study comparing standard phacoemulsification to Aqualase. Complication rates were similar between the two procedures. The 63 patient study looked in particular at foveal thickening after surgery. While no statistical significance was demonstrated, the study showed a trend towards less foveal thickening in the Aqualase group for diabetics. Foveal thickening can be a marker for a common complication after cataract surgery, cystoid macular edema. Unfortunately, the clinical significance of foveal thickening is often unpredictable.

Corneal inlays: Another entrant into the presbyopia treatment wars

March 9, 2007

Analysis of:Corneal inlay is versatile approach for presbyopia | www.ophthalmologytimes.com

The early results of a new corneal inlay (PresbyLens, ReVision Optics) are presented. A corneal inlay is placed underneath a LASIK corneal flap in the non-dominant eye to correct presbyopia. This version of a corneal inlay is 1.5mm in diameter. The outcomes of 15 patients showed good uncorrected distance and near vision with 86% with 20/40 or better uncorrected near vision and 64% with 20/40 or better uncorrected distance vision.

Approval of Aspheric Restor lens: Another winner for Alcon?

March 7, 2007

Analysis of:Alcon's AcrySof(R) ReSTOR(R) Apodized Diffractive Aspheric Intraocular Lens Approved by FDA | biz.yahoo.com

The recent approval of the aspheric version of the Restor multifocal intraocular lens is positive as most surgeons already understand the value of aspheric optics. As shown with monofocal aspheric lenses, such as the Alcon IQ, Advanced Medical Optics' Tecnis, and Bausch and Lomb's Sofport, aspheric lenses improve visual functioning and contrast sensitivity. With the incorporation of aspheric optics in Alcon's Restor platform, Restor becomes the first and only aspheric presbyopia-correcting IOL. The data that led to the FDA approval has not been released.

View All GLG News ^SM Analyses by Sanjay Rao

Request a consultation with Sanjay Rao