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English pioneer of refractive surgery dies at age 86
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LONDON — The surgeon who was the first to bring keratomileusis, the forerunner of today's LASIK surgery, to the British Isles passed away August 31, according to an announcement from the Royal College of Ophthalmologists.
Mr. Derek Ainslie, who retired from Moorfields Eye Hospital many years ago due to illness and severe vision loss from glaucoma, died at the age of 86 years, said Miss Brenda Billington, the president of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, in the announcement. Her statement was released here on the first day of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons meeting.
As a consultant ophthalmologist at Moorfields in the 1960s, Mr. Ainslie was one of the first ophthalmologists in the United Kingdon to confine his work to the field of corneal surgery, according to Mr. Ainslie's friend and successor, Mr. Arthur Steele. Mr. Ainslie traveled to Colombia to learn keratomileusis from Jose Barraquer, and he mastered the techniques of using Dr. Barraquer's microkeratome and the cryolathe, used to shape corneal tissue.
Mr. Ainslie's work was interrupted by his illness in 1975, when he retired at the age of 55.