History of Eye Injury
Research at Birmingham
Dr.
Robert Morris
and Dr. C. Douglas Witherspoon are
vitreoretinal surgeons whose practice, Retina Specialist of Alabama,
LLC, is located in Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.A. They are teaching
faculty members in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department
of Ophthalmology, and clinical vision researchers for the Helen
Keller Foundation for Research and Education.
Eye injury
research has been the primary academic interest of Drs. Morris and
Witherspoon over the last two decades. During the 1980's they founded
the United States Eye Injury Registry (USEIR), now the largest data
base in eye injury worldwide - guiding improved prevention and treatment
strategies. With colleague Dr. Robert Phillips, they pioneered use
of the artificial cornea (temporary keratoprosthesis, TKP) for total
reconstruction of the severely injured eye. Morris and Witherspoon
were the first physicians to report that even no light perception
(NLP) was not a complete barrier to the return of useful vision
in recently injured eyes - and that even NLP eyes should usually
be explored for possible reconstruction. Their report of bilateral
eye injury victims showed a threefold increase of salvage of useful
vision in at least one eye, to nearly 60%, as compared to reports
of less than 20% salvage in the early 1970's.
During the
1990's they were joined by Dr. Ferenc Kuhn,
a Hungarian vitreoretinal surgeon who became the world's first full-time
M.D. researcher in eye injury. This partnership accelerated progress,
leading to establishment of the first common language for eye trauma
- the Birmingham Eye Trauma Terminology (BETT) in 1994. Supported
by the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention,
with Dr. Kuhn as the principal investigator, they developed an ocular
trauma score (OTS) to guide counseling and to aid prognosis and
treatment by predicting outcomes based on initial eye injury factors.
They also published major works on the epidemiology and socioeconomic
aspects of eye injury, and counseling of the trauma victim.
Currently Dr.
Morris serves as president of the Helen Keller Foundation for Research
and Education and is president of the International Society for
Ocular Trauma. Dr. Witherspoon is the American Academy of Ophthalmology's
representative to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention
on the subject of ocular trauma and serves as the executive vice
president and CEO of USEIR. Dr. Kuhn is director of research for
USEIR, and is a prolific author and speaker on ocular trauma topics
in scientific forums worldwide.
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