Amar Agarwal
The Power List 2016
Amar Agarwal
Chairman, Dr. Agarwal’s Group of Eye Hospitals, Chennai
Amar Agarwal is a pioneer of microincisional cataract surgery. He was first to remove cataracts through a 0.7 mm tip; first to develop no-anesthesia cataract surgery; first to implant a glued IOL; first to implant a mirror telescopic IOL in AMD, and first to use Trypan blue as an epiretinal membrane stain. He coined the term “aberropia” to describe uncompensated HOA profiles following refractive surgery, and produced a modified Malyugin ring for miotic pupil cataract surgeries with posterior capsular defects. Most recently, he and Harminder Dua (qv) pioneered Pre-Descemet’s Endothelial Keratoplasty, which allows for the use of younger corneal donors than previous techniques, greatly increasing the donor tissue pool. He’s also chairman of Dr. Agarwal’s Eye Hospital group – a major chain of eye hospitals, headquartered in Chennai, with more than 40 other branches across India, and a further 12 overseas.
His passion is surgery: his surgical videos have won numerous awards at the ASCRS, AAO and ESCRS film festivals, and he has written more than 50 books, many of which have been published in multiple languages. He has received the Casebeer, Barraquer and Kelman Awards, among many. Agarwal also organizes the popular Ophthalmic Premier League sessions during AAO, IIRSI, AIOC, and WOC.
