A London woman who lost her vision due to a rare eye condition has hailed a groundbreaking new treatment as "phenomenal" after it successfully restored her sight. Nicki Guy, 47, is now close to being able to drive again and has resumed activities like taking her son skiing, thanks to a pioneering project led by Moorfields Eye Hospital.
From Vision Loss to a Medical Breakthrough
Nicki Guy suffers from hypotony, a condition characterised by critically low pressure inside the eye. "With hypotony, your eye basically crumples like a paper bag," she explained. Despite having good vision potential, the structural collapse of her eye prevented her from seeing. She became the first patient to receive injections of a special gel, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), as part of the Moorfields-led initiative.
This clear, low-cost gel is commonly used in surgery to maintain an eye's shape during operations. For this project, specialists injected it directly into the eye to restore pressure. Mrs Guy was one of eight patients who received the injections every two weeks for a year. Consultant ophthalmologist Harry Petrushkin, who has cared for Mrs Guy since May 2019, described the patients' eyesight as "poor" before the treatment began. He noted that at the start, Mrs Guy could barely see a hand waving in front of her eye.
A Life Transformed and a New Career Path
The results have been transformative. "There's none of that murkiness, the pressure is there," Mrs Guy said. Her vision improved so significantly that she had to surrender her driving licence in 2021 but now hopes to regain it. "I'm so close to being able to drive again with my vision in my left eye. So I mean, that's phenomenal success," she stated.
Her journey with eye problems began after the birth of her son, when she was diagnosed with chronic anterior uveitis, an inflammatory condition. She was symptom-free until complications arose in 2017, leading to the development of cataracts and eventually hypotony. After seeking treatment abroad, she was referred back to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.
While the treatment successfully restored vision in her left eye, Mrs Guy lost sight in her right eye last year due to an unrelated retinal detachment. Before this, HPMC injections in that eye had also been successful.
The experience profoundly changed her life, even influencing her career. Previously doing "bits and bobs of everything," she is now a communications officer for the sight loss charity Thomas Pocklington Trust. "The fact that it's a sight loss charity – you know when something just feels like it aligns so perfectly?" she remarked.
The Future of Eye Treatment
Traditional treatment for hypotony involves silicone oil injections, but these can cause toxicity. The Moorfields team pioneered the use of HPMC as a safer alternative. The project's success has led to the treatment being rolled out to other patients in the clinic.
Mrs Guy expressed enormous gratitude to Mr Petrushkin and the hospital team. "Knowing that other people have benefited from what was a quite challenging, quite scary time in my life, it just brings an extra layer to it," she said. Her story offers significant hope for others suffering from similar rare and debilitating eye conditions, highlighting a major advance in ophthalmic care emerging from London's world-renowned hospital.
