Surgeon seeks eye research volunteers

The so-called ‘dry’ form of age related macular degeneration (AMD) can cause severe sight loss and is currently considered to have no effective treatment.
But Dr James Colthurst, of Fenzian Ltd in Charnham Lane, believes he has developed one - and he is offering it free to the first 10 suitable applicants.
He said: “Treatment is painless and the clinic will gladly treat those applicants free of charge to gather data. They need to be prepared to visit the clinic, three to four times a week for four weeks, where they will be treated by either myself or a colleague.”
The ultimate aim is to make Dr Colthurst’s ‘Fenzian’ treatment available to all ‘dry’ AMD patients before the condition progresses to the ‘wet’ form - whose treatment involves expensive injections to the eyes.
Fenzian treatments take about 30 minutes and are undertaken sitting in a chair.
The Fenzian system was developed 14 years ago and involves a battery-powered, handheld unit placed on the patient’s skin.
It then communicates with the body’s nervous system via a process of electro-biofeedback which speeds up natural recovery.
Fenzian was originally used in musculo-skeletal injuries and went on to produce encouraging results in some ‘end-stage’ angina patients at Ealing Hospital.
Pilot studies in treating asthma have also been highly promising.
Dr Colthurst said: “As word of Fenzian spread, patients for whom other treatments had failed visited our Hungerford clinic as a last resort.”
He added that many thousands of patients have been treated for a wide range of conditions without a single negative side effect.
Now Dr Colthurst has turned his attention to AMD and, after an initial four patients showed good results, he is keen to treat some more to obtain enough data to attract government funding for a formal clinical trial which the Manchester Royal Eye Hospital has agreed to undertake.
Dr Colthurst believes that AMD might be more like an injury than a disease - a disease that, in younger people, is prevented by the cooling effect of an adequate surrounding blood supply.
He said: “Putting a light source in front of a lens focuses light on a point and causes heat. If the blood flow reduces with age, the retina may be ‘slow-cooked’ over time, especially in a generation where folk have had sunny holidays and also time spent in front of screens for long hours.”
If his method is as successful as he hopes, Dr Colthurst wants to make the Fenzian treatment available to all ‘dry’ AMD patients before the condition progresses to the ‘wet’ form whose treatment involves expensive injections into the eyes.
He can be contacted via telephone on (01488) 682 022.
To find out more about Fenzian, visit www.fenzian.com