About us
The Center of Eye Diseases of Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos is one of the most important academical, scientific and medical divisions of eye diseases in the country. The Center is proud of its long traditions of treating patients, which dates back to the end of the 9th century, when the philanthropist and countess Marija Tyzenhauzaitė - Pšezdzieckienė established an eye hospital in Vilnius in 1881. Today, the mission of the Center of Eye Diseases is to provide high quality ophthalmic care to the country's patients and to carry out educational and scientific activities.
What makes us special
The employees of the Center of Eye Diseases were the first in Lithuania to perform amniotic membrane transplantation and to treat patients with intravitreal injections of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor agents. These are the areas where we have the most experience in the country. The Center actively participates in scientific and clinical research. In 2017, it was one of the first in Santaros klinikos to receive the Clinical Research Site Award certificate.
At the tissue biobank, we preserve donor corneas and amniotic membranes in unique long-term media. We have been doing this for more than a decade and we are the only ones in the Baltic States to use these methods.
The Center takes the lead in performing reconstructive operations of eyelids and ocular appendages and in the management of oncological diseases of ocular adnexa. Furthermore, doctors of the Center are the only ones in the country to treat retinal tears and detachments using the extraocular minimally invasive surgery technique.
Doctors of the Center also perform optic nerve sheath fenestration surgery and endoscopic laser dacryocystorhinostomies together with otorhinolaryngologists. The selective occlusion and excision of vascular malformations of the eyelids and orbits are performed in collaboration with vascular surgeons and interventional radiologists. In addition, we perform reconstructive surgeries of tear ducts, eyelids and orbits, and excision of eyelid and orbital tumours. Silicone and dermal-adipose implants are used for reconstruction.
What we offer to our patients
In the Center of Eye Diseases the highest level operations are performed on the patients using the most advanced equipment:
- Cataract extractions with intraocular lens implantation
- Glaucoma surgery – conventional and using various shunts
- Diagnostic procedures for the anterior segment of the eye and the retina
- Corneal and amniotic membrane transplantation
- Surgical procedures of retinal tears and detachments
- Pars plana vitrectomies
- Plastic-reconstructive surgery of tear ducts and eyelids
- Strabismus correction surgery
- Surgical treatment of ocular injuries
- Intravitreal injections for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration, diabetic maculopathy, retinal vein occlusion, inflammatory diseases of the retina and vitreous body
- Laser treatment of retinal diseases, glaucoma and secondary cataract.
Most operations are performed on an outpatient basis, so patients are discharged on the same day.
What we offer to the medical community
The Center of Eye Diseases runs training programmes in therapeutic medicine and Erasmus student exchange programmes. Approximately 170 students per year attend the course on eye diseases. The Center runs an ophthalmology residency programme to train future ophthalmologists. It currently involves 16 ophthalmology residents. Throughout the whole period of residency training, over 60 ophthalmologists have been trained. Moreover, the refinement of ophthalmologists also takes place in this Center.
Doctors are trained in two cycles: 'Selected Issues in Ocular Diseases' and 'Diagnosis and Treatment of Corneal and Ocular Surface Diseases in Adults and Children'. Around 25 ophthalmologists take part in these programmes each year.
Clinical research on glaucoma, rare retinal diseases, oncological diseases of accessory structures of the eye is conducted. Joint research with nephrologists, neurologists, geneticists and pathologists is gaining momentum. Several articles per year are published in journals that belong to the Thomson Reuters database and other peer-reviewed sources of literature.
Contact us
Last edited: 2021-12-15
