About your surgeon

Mr Mohammed Muhtaseb BSc(Hons), MBBS(Hons), FRCOphth

Formerly Consultant Ophthalmic and Cornea Surgeon at Singleton Hospital, Swansea, Honorary Clinical Teacher, University of Wales, Swansea, Consultant & Founding Refractive Surgeon at i.Lase, Swansea and i.Lase, London.

Your surgeon is one of very few ophthalmologists working in the UK who is a fellowship-trained specialist in cornea and refractive surgery.  The importance of fellowship training becomes clear when the system for regular training is understood. 

To become a Consultant, an ophthalmologist will go through a structured training programme in the NHS.  At the end of this programme, he/she will undertake one or more periods of sub-specialist training in their chosen field for 6-12 months each (the Fellowship).  However, with the majority of Cornea fellowships in the UK offering little practical experience in Refractive Surgery, Mr Muhtaseb travelled abroad to develop this expertise at a centre of excellence in the field.

After his general ophthalmic training, Mr Muhtaseb completed one fellowship in advanced corneal surgery (Moorfields Eye Centre at St George’s Hospital, London) and one fellowship in inflammatory eye diseases (St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospitals).  He then moved to the Greek island of Crete, the home of modern LASIK, and spent 9 months in a dedicated refractive surgical fellowship with a renowned expert refractive surgeon.  There, he gained extensive hands-on experience of various refractive surgical procedures, pre- and post-operative patient management, as well as research that has led to numerous presentations at prestigious international conferences.
Mr Muhtaseb returned from Crete to join Singleton Hospital, Swansea as Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon with responsibility to develop a new service for the treatment of corneal diseases in Mid- and West Wales, serving a population of 700,000.  He is also Honorary Clinical Teacher at the University of Wales, Swansea.
Having used several different excimer lasers, Mr Muhtaseb has an in-depth knowledge of their relative advantages and disadvantages.  He will only use state-of-the-art equipment that delivers high quality, safe treatment tailored to your needs.

Mr Muhtaseb believes that becoming an expert equips a surgeon with the knowledge to fully assess candidates for surgery, avoid predictable complications, advise unsuitable patients on alternative ways forward, deliver high quality and safe surgery, and deal with any unpredicted complications that may occur

Phakos = Greek word meaning ‘lens’

Phakic = Means that the eye’s natural lens is retained in the eye

Aphakic = Means that the eye does not have it’s natural lens.  It may have been surgically removed, lost in an accident, or may be congenitally absent

The normal eye can see at various distances because the natural lens can zoom in and out:

• In the distance
• able to see bus numbers and faces of people on the street
• Close up
• able to read
• Intermediate distance
• able to use a computer, paint, read music, tee off on the golf course

 If the lens is removed in an operation, it is usually replaced with an intraocular lens implant, of which there are different types.

Monofocal intraocular lens

• a lens that gives good vision at only one distance, so that glasses are needed to see well at other distances

Multifocal intraocular lens

• a lens that gives good vision at more than one distance

Presbyopia is the loss of the eye’s ability to zoom in and see close objects.  It occurs naturally as part of the ageing process and causes us to hold reading material further away than usual.  Eventually, we need reading glasses to see near objects clearly.

Presbyopia makes us hold near objects further away, and use reading glasses to see clearly