Emory eye surgeon Mary Lynch has developed a new surgical approach to primary congenital glaucoma that requires only one operation instead of three, significantly reduces scarring and eliminates the nearsightedness present after traditional treatment. The surgery relieves the sight-stealing ocular pressure of glaucoma by opening the eye's tiny drainage system with a suture fragment.
"This technique has a success rate equal to that of standard trabeculotomy techniques and avoids many of the difficulties encountered with metal probes," reported assistant professor of ophthalmology Allen D. Beck in a study of the new technique described in the September 1995 issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.
The Emory team reported the results of the technique performed on 15 children with an average age of 8 1/2 months. "At last follow-up examination, 87 percent of children had successful surgery," Beck reported.
The Law and Religion Program has received a grant of $105,000 from the Steinhardt Foundation of New York for a three-year project on Jewish law, religion and family. The project's goal is to study the impact of modern changes in family structure on the approaches of Jewish law to marriage, divorce and child custody, said Michael Broyde, visiting assistant professor of law and director of the project.
Initially, the project will consider whether the Jewish perspectives on marriage may have shifted from talmudic times, and if so, how this impacts the way Jewish law and ethics views divorce. The second phase will consider whether the abandonment of the Jewish court system as the ultimate arbitrator of family law has had an impact on the way Jewish law and ethics views the problems of divorce.
"This project will afford an opportunity for collaboration among a number of faculty working on related questions, and for cultivating closer ties among the law school, the Graduate Division of Religion, the Department of Religion and the new graduate program in Judaic Studies," said John Witte, director of the Law and Religion Program.