Now the treatment of eye tumors is easy: BARC scientists have made a low cost nuclear bandage, now not 10 lakhs, only 50 thousand will be treated

Ophthalmologist Dr. Santosh G Honnavar assisted in this innovation.

Dr. Santosh G Honnavar, an eminent ophthalmologist from Hyderabad, in collaboration with Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC) has developed a low-cost brachytherapy ruthenium bandage for the treatment of eye tumors. Since the start of tumor treatment in the country in 2002, till now this device was imported from Germany and its cost came to about 10 thousand euros i.e. about 10 lakh rupees.

But, this bandage, developed under the ‘Make in India program’, will now be available up to a price of 50 thousand rupees. Recently, Dr. Honnavar’s name has been included in the top 10 ophthalmologists of the country by Stanford University in the US and the technical journal Elsevier in the Netherlands.

Dr. Santosh Honnavar, Head of the Center for Sight’s Department of Ophthalmic Plastic Surgery, said ophthalmologists designed the bandage to be used directly to treat small eye tumors while the BARC scientists created the prototype bandage, Which was found to be better than the imported bandage.

Each bandage can be used on multiple patients for a year, which means a lot to the patients in terms of cost. BARC has provided these plaques free of cost to the Central Government. Eye tumors are usually small and can be treated safely if detected early.

Around 300 cases of eye tumors have been detected in four centers located in Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai. Already more than 60 patients have been successfully treated with this bandage in Hyderabad.

Dr. Honnavar said – we are completely satisfied with the technology developed by BARC
Dr. Hannavar said the BARC scientists have refined the nuclear waste to the best level and the device meets all safety standards. We are completely satisfied with its quality. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awardee for Treatment of Retinoblastoma in Children, Dr. Honavar has published more than 270 papers in prestigious journals and contains more than 9 thousand citations.