Dr John Hill Eye Laser Centre
Eye in Cape Town

All this is done in a comfortable environment and at the lowest possible cost to the patient, the favourable exchange rate make our services particularly appealing to overseas visitors. Cape Town, Dr John Hill provides premium quality eye care using the highest standards of diagnostic and surgical procedures, based, South Africa, utilizing the latest technology.

The John Hill Eye Laser Centre is located in the southern Cape Town suburb of Claremont, about 10km from Cape Town’s central business district, and about 15min from Cape Town International Airport. We have a dedicated laser room, and an operating suite with a fully equipped eye operating theatre. Dr John Hill qualified as a medical doctor in 1974 and as an eye surgeon in She checks your vision and refraction after laser treatment to ensure all has gone well. Since that time equipment and surgical techniques have made enormous advances. This has been a major advance in laser surgery making the treatment even more accurate and safe; thus ensuring the best possible outcome. Lasik is a modern adaptation, using the Excimer Laser, of a technique that has been in existence for almost 30 years. The Lasik procedure is now regarded as the most advanced refractive surgery technique. Another alternative is the use of implants, which we explore further below. A measurement of your cornea is made by computerized corneal topography that produces a contour map to show the curve of your cornea. This information is also fed into the laser to give a more accurate customized treatment. With a phakic implant we supplement the strength of the natural lens by placing an extra lens within the eye on top of the natural lens. The phakic implant is inserted into the eye as a minor surgical procedure under local anaesthesia. By supplementing the strength of the natural lens the phakic implant allows the patient to focus normally. Visual recovery is rapid with the patient seeing well within a day, with more improvement occurring over the following two or three weeks. Because the natural lens is left untouched the patient is still able to focus naturally for near. It is known that a very small percentage of patients with phakic implants will develop cataracts in the natural lens after a number of years(1 to 2 %), but these are usually older patients. If a patient does develop a cataract this is easily remedied but does require a further operation. For older patients we normally recommend a different procedure where the natural lens is replaced by a special implant as opposed to the phakic implant that is inserted in addition to the natural lens. One of the most successful operations performed by eye surgeons is the cataract operation. It is possible to calculate what strength implant is required so that the patient does not require glasses for distance vision after the operation. This is usually made for distance vision and the patient then requires reading glasses. This situation, were one eye sees better for distance and the other for near, is known as monovision and we will discuss this with you prior to the operation. Excellent results are usually obtained with these implants during daylight vision but some night vision problems can occur especially in the early months.