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Dr. Mannis specialized in corneal surgery and diseases of the external eye. He is a Professor and Chair of the Dept. of Ophthalmology at U.C. Davis and is medical director of the Sierra Donor Services here in Sacramento.
He received his M.D. degree from Univ. of Florida School of Medicine, residency at Washington Univ. in St. Louis and fellowship in cornea and external disease at the Univ. of Iowa. He served for six years as Editor of the journal CORNEA, founding editor of the Pan American Journal of Ophthalmology and has published many papers and is a reviewer of the Archives of Ophthalmology, Cornea, American Journal of Ophthalmology and Contact Lenses. He has also edited and authored six books. He has received numerous awards and trained many Fellows in Corneal Disease, and approximately 100 residents. His last several years he has contributed to vision care in Latin America, for which he recently received the Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award by the Academic Senate of U.C.D.
Dr. Mannis started by thanking Chuck McBride for inviting him to speak to the Club. He said that he has been in Sacramento since 1980 and he wanted to tell us what a gem we have in the U.C.D. System. It is a transformational institution, a leader in the field of medicine, looking for new cures and new treatments. It draws from the U.C.D. School of Medicine and also the Veterinary School at Davis and the Primate Center. It does research in all fields.
It provides cutting edge care, research for the world, training of new eye care physicians, has a magnificent medical center and faculty, serves 50,000 patients per year in Sacramento, Folsom and Davis. It includes many different modalities and is in the geographical center of California. They have 16 ophthalmologists, 6 affiliated with the V.A., 9 optometrists and other researchers (PhDs etc).
Dr. Mannis then presented a slide show and talked about ophthalmology worldwide. He said that in the U.S. almost all cataract disease is curable. The major cause of blindness in the world is "lack of glasses". The are 17 million people who are blind because of cataracts. In the US, the primary factor in cataract formation is age. Fifty percent at 65 to 75. The lens yellows and becomes opaque. Cataracts can be congenital or acquired. The cure is surgical removal and with a intraocular lens inserted. The cataract is broken up with a laser and removed. One gets excellent vision.
Glaucoma is the second most frequent cause of blindness worldwide. It causes damage to the optic nerve. It causes increase in intraocular pressure. It is silent, symptom-less (ocular hypertension) and causes loss of peripheral vision. Treatment is medical (drops) and surgical - with laser treatment.
Then there is age related Macular Degeneration - 90% occurs over age 75. It will affect 3 million people by 2020. Causative factors include cardiovascular disease and obesity. It causes loss of vision in the Macular area of the retina, or central vision. As it progresses, people can't read.
There are two kinds, dry and wet. Dry is caused by an accumulation of debris, and the wet characterized by bleeding.
The treatment is a diet that is high in Omega3 fatty acids, basically the Mediterranean diet. They also can put agents in the eye, and Dr. Mannis showed a slide of an amazing advancement where a small telescope is implanted through the cornea and improves vision - this is used when vision has greatly decreased.
U.C.D. is committed to service to communities all over the world. Dr. Mannis showed us pictures of himself and other Doctors, staff doing ocular surgery in other countries in a "Flying High Hospital" plane. They go on trips for 10 days and not only benefit patients but help to train local doctors in their techniques!
U.C.D. is famous for many things, including bioengineering. It does more research than UCLA or Stanford.
U.C.D. will soon have a new 65,000 square foot facility devoted fully to vision care! U.C.D.'s mission is to provide excellent patient care, discovery, and to train the next generation of eye care specialists.