Richard Fugo, creator of Fugo blade, dies
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Richard J. Fugo, MD, the inventor of the Fugo blade, also known as the plasma blade, died on March 14.
Fugo owned and operated the Fugo Eye Institute in Norristown, Pennsylvania, from 1985 until his retirement in December 2019.
He was a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and received a master’s degree in biology at Villanova University and a PhD in human physiology from Thomas Jefferson Medical College before attending medical school at the University of Bologna in Italy, according to his obituary. He completed an ophthalmology residency at Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia before opening his private practice.
Fugo’s invention, the Fugo blade, is a plasma blade that uses pulses of plasma around its tip to cut and cauterize tissue. It was the first plasma ablation system and was approved in 2000 by the FDA for capsulotomy, iridotomy and transciliary filtration.
Fugo is survived by his wife, Marie Fugo, two daughters and two sons-in-law, as well as two granddaughters and two siblings.