新激光手術20秒可讓眼珠變藍色

Blue eyes have historically been a significant measure of attractiveness, and although they’re commonly found among actors and models, only 17% of the global population has them. For the majority of people, approximately 80% of the population, blue eyes have been attainable only with the aid of colored contact lenses or artificial iris implants. But that will soon change with the introduction of a new medical procedure, pioneered by California company Stroma Medical, that can turn brown eyes blue.

藍色眼睛一直被認爲是美貌的一個重要衡量標準。儘管很多演員和模特都有藍眼睛，但是從全球範圍來看，只有17%的人口擁有藍眼睛。對大多數人（80%）而言，藍色眼睛只能靠佩戴有色隱形眼鏡或植入人工虹膜來實現。不過，這一切很快就要改變了，美國加州基質醫學公司率先引進的一項新手術可以讓棕色眼睛變成藍色。

The laser procedure works by eliminating the melanin from the surface of the iris, which then allows light to enter and scatter in the stroma. The effect is similar to Rayleigh scattering, in which wavelengths of sunlight hit much smaller molecules in the air and then scatter, which makes the atmosphere appear blue.

這項激光手術通過消除虹膜表面的黑色素，讓光線得以進入虹膜，分散在基質層上，從而讓眼睛呈現出藍色。這一過程和瑞利散射的原理類似，當陽光的波長觸及空氣中的分子散射開來，天空就會呈現藍色。

“The fundamental principle is that under every brown eye is a blue eye,” Dr. Gregg Homer told CNN, adding that there is no actual blue pigmentation in the eye. “The only difference between a brown eye and a blue eye is this very thin layer of pigment on the surface. If you take that pigment away, then the light can enter the stroma — the little fibers that look like bicycle spokes in a light eye – and when the light scatters it only reflects back the shortest wavelengths, and that’s the blue end of the spectrum.”

格雷格?荷馬醫生告訴CNN說：“基本原理是，每隻棕色眼睛的後面都是一隻藍色眼睛。”他補充說，其實眼睛裏並沒有藍色的色素。棕色眼睛和藍色眼睛的唯一區別就在於虹膜表面的這層極薄的色素。如果你把這層色素移去，光線就可以進入到基質層——這層纖維肌在淺色眼睛中看起來就像自行車輻條——當光線分散到基質層上，只有波長最短的光線會反射回去，也就是光譜中的藍光。”

The laser treatment disrupts the fragile layer of pigment on the iris, which causes the body to start removing the tissue naturally. While the procedure itself only takes around 20 seconds, the blue eyes do not emerge for several weeks, as the body can only gradually release the pigment.

激光手術會破壞虹膜表面這層脆弱的色素，促使人體自然地移除相關組織。儘管手術本身只需20秒鐘，但是要過上數週，眼睛才能變成藍色，因爲人體只能逐漸地釋放色素。

Stroma Medical aspires to develop the safest, cheapest, and most convenient procedure available on the market, but it has yet to gain approval from the regulatory bodies in the United States. The company’s medical board has stated that preliminary studies show that the surgery is safe, but so far only 37 patients altogether have undergone the treatment. 17 patients were in Mexico and the remaining 20 in Costa Rica. The company is currently in the fundraising stage as it searches for investors, but hopes to have completed clinical trials within a few years. Currently, the price to change brown eyes blue stands at a relatively high amount of $5,000.

基質醫學公司立志研發出市場上最安全、最實惠、最方便的眼球變色手術，但仍需獲得美國監管機構的許可。該公司的醫務委員會聲稱，前期研究顯示，手術是安全的，但到目前爲止總共只有37位患者接受了這種手術。17位患者在墨西哥，其餘20位在哥斯達黎加。該公司目前正在融資階段，在尋找投資人的同時，公司希望能夠在幾年內完成臨牀試驗。當前把棕色眼睛變成藍色眼睛的手術費用較高，需5000美元（3.3萬元人民幣）。

The medical industry, ophthalmologists in particular, has not been particularly receptive to the procedure. The skepticism is based on the fact that eyes are one of the most sensitive organs in the human body, and that the procedure is irreversible.

醫學界尤其是眼科界對這種手術的接受度不是特別高。他們質疑的依據是，眼睛是人體最敏感的器官之一，而這種手術是不可逆的。

Saj Khan, an ophthalmologist at the London Eye Hospital, told CNN, “The primary concern with any procedure that involves releasing pigment inside the eye is that the pigment can clog up the regular drainage channels which can, in turn, cause the pressure inside the eye to go up. If that happens significantly enough, for long enough, it’s how patients develop glaucoma.”

倫敦眼科醫院的眼科醫生薩吉?可汗告訴CNN說：“任何會釋放眼內色素的手術讓人擔心的首要問題是，色素可能會堵塞微循環，從而導致眼壓上升。如果情況嚴重並且長期持續的話，就會患上青光眼。”

Stroma Medical claims that the particles released by the procedure are too small to cause glaucoma, which Khan admits makes sense, but he and other doctors are reluctant to recommend it.

基質醫學公司聲稱，手術所釋放的微粒體積很小，不會導致青光眼，儘管可汗承認這種說法有道理，但是他和其他醫生還是不願意推薦這種手術。

“Theory has some sense to it, but without seeing long-term outcomes and without seeing patients that have been treated in this way I wouldn’t commit myself to it,” Khan said.

可汗說：“從理論上說是合理的，但是沒看到長期後果，接觸不到接受這種手術的患者，我是不會認可這種手術的。”

“It’s not a goal of our company to promote blue eyes,” Stroma Medica’s Dr. Gregg Homer told CNN. “From my experience what most people are after is the translucence of the blue eye rather than the color of the blue eye. The people who seem most vigilant about pursuing this always have a story about being young and in the presence of a sibling or a friend who had light eyes and the friend is being told how beautiful their eyes are, and it sticks with them. That seems to be something they’ve carried around with them. Would it be better for them to get over it? Probably. All your problems don’t go away because you’ve changed your eye color, but I do believe that people like to express themselves a certain way and it’s nice when they have the freedom to do that.”

“我們公司的目標不是宣傳藍眼睛，”基質醫學公司的格雷格?荷馬醫生告訴CNN說，“根據我的經驗，多數人追求的是藍眼睛的澄澈感，而不是藍眼睛的顏色。那些最渴求藍眼睛的人通常都有一個這樣的故事：小時候某個兄弟姐妹或朋友擁有藍眼睛，然後被別人稱讚眼睛很漂亮，於是他們就有了揮之不去的‘藍眼睛情結’。是不是等他們自己放下這個執念會更好呢？很可能是這樣。你自身的問題不會因爲你改變了眼睛顏色就全都消失，但我相信有人會願意用某種方式來表達自己，讓他們獲得表達的自由不是很好嗎？”