News

Anne Keating, MD, is now offering ophthalmology services at RiverView Health.

Through Eye Consultants of Fargo, Dr. Keating offers cataract surgery and Yag Laser outpatient procedures on RiverView’s main campus in Crookston. With Dr. Keating’s expertise, RiverView is the first location in Crookston to offer the Yag laser technology.

A Yag capsulotomy is a special laser treatment used to improve your vision after cataract surgery in the case that an “after-cataract’’ has formed. Problems after cataract surgery are rare but can occur. During a cataract surgery, the natural lens inside the eye that has become cloudy is removed. A new plastic lens is put inside the lens membrane (called the bag or capsule) in the eye. In a small number of patients, the capsule thickens after surgery and becomes cloudy. This interferes with the light reaching the back of the eye. When this happens, sight becomes misty, and the patient may get glare in bright light or from lights at nighttime.

Capsule thickening can happen in the months after the cataract surgery, but more commonly occurs about two years after surgery. Yag laser capsulotomy is the only way to treat this. In a Yag laser capsulotomy the doctor uses a special lens to apply a laser beam to the capsule. This creates a small hole in the center of the capsule, which lets light through.

“It is an amazing laser that can break up the film or scar tissue that can form behind the intraocular lens implant without having to surgically go into the eye,’’ Dr. Keating explained of the Yag laser and the one-time capsulotomy procedure. “It is painless and vision improves very quickly.’’

A Fargo native, Dr. Keating is a graduate of Concordia College (Moorhead) and attended medical school at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. She completed her ophthalmology residency at State University of New York, Buffalo. She also completed a Cornea and Refractive Surgery Fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. She is a clinical assistant professor at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine, and is licensed to practice medicine and surgery in North Dakota and Minnesota.

Dr. Keating sees patients at Crookston Eye Clinic where she works with optometrists Drs. Angie Smith, Matt Forgit and Kari Miller. To make an appointment with Dr. Keating or to learn more about the procedures she offers in Crookston, call the Crookston Eye Clinic at 218-281-2020.

Pictured above: Dr. Anne Keating visits with a patient before a procedure at RiverView Health.