Bulletin Spring‧Summer 1994

HK$734,000 for Community Research on AIDS A 'Community Research Programme on AIDS' proposed by Dr. Joseph Lau of the Centre for Clinical Trials and Epidemiological Research recently obtained a research grant of HK$734,000 from the Council for the AIDS Trust Fund. The first research programme of its kind in Hong Kong, the project aims at building up an infrastructure for AIDS research in the territory. Activities planned include monitoring public attitude towards AIDS and the development of the disease in Hong Kong, studying high-risk behaviour and the quality of life of H I V infected patients, and developing and evaluating community intervention programmes. New Medical Advances State-of-the-Art Eye Surgery at PWH Eye doctors at the University's teachin g hospital have successfully performed microsurgery to treat age- related macular degeneration (AMD). AMD is usually found in people aged 60 or above. It affects the central part of the retina called macula which governs visual acuity. It is not easily detectable in its early stage and there is as yet no treatment to stop its progression. In its active stage, blood vessels around the macula will bleed, resulting in the severe loss of central vision. When a dense scar is formed after the bleeding the patient's central vision will be damaged permanently. Since late 1993 some 10 AMD patients have undergone microsurgery at the Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH) to have their scars removed. The operation involved excising the vitreous gel inside the eyeball and making a small incision on the retina next to the scar tissue. Through the incision delicate instruments were inserted to remov e the scar from beneath the retina and then out of the eye. The incision on the retina was then sealed with laser. Such submacular surgery was first performed in the United States in 1991. The PWH is one of the few medical centres in the world capable of providing such treatment to patients with AMD, helping them to regain some of their central vision. For the first time in Hong Kong AMD becomes treatable by eye surgery. New Hope for Infertile Men to Become Fathers Doctors at PWH have devised a new technique to increase the success rate of test-tube fertilization. The first baby produced locally as a result of such a technique was delivered on 9th April by caesarean section. In standard in vitro-fertilization (IVF), human eggs and sperms are mixed in a dish or a test tube, and the sperms are expected to make their own way into the egg to achieve fertilization. But when the sperms are too few or too weak to break through the egg's protective 'shell', then IVF will fail. To make life easier for these sperms, doctors now introduce 'subzonal insemination': a fine glass tube thinner than a human hair is used to break through the shell of the egg and inject chosen sperms into the f l u id between the shell and the cell membrane. I f the egg is successfully fertilized by any sperm thus brought near, it will be replanted to the human uterus. Such micro-manipulation of human eggs and sperms wil l require very sophisticated and expensive equipment and the success rate is only 10 per cent at the moment. Doctors at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology will continue with their research Preoperative Postoperative News in Brief 38