Recommendation in DC area please?

[Rebecca Petris]

On behalf of a patient I was speaking with today I'd like to ask for any suggestions of good dry eye friendly doctors in the DC/Maryland/Virginia area.

Also, does anyone know a doctor in that region who has used autologous serum?

Many thanks in advance!!

[Rojzen]

Dr. Gabe Mirkin for autologous serum; 2 other names

I am not sure whether Dr. Mirkin is still in practice, but he is an immunologist well known in the D.C. area (practice is/was in Silver Spring, MD), who, for many years, treated dry eye patients with various antibiotics and autologous serum. He had a nurse who specialized in drawing blood for the serum, and having it processed in sterile fashion. . .I don't know of any ophthalmologists around here who do this. . .Dr. Mirkin, btw, is the same Dr. Mirkin once famed for his iconoclastic radio show on using antibiotics to treat everything, and most especially, autoimmune diseases. . .When I was his patient, he told me he had cured his wife of RA through use of minocycline. He also believed that Sjogren's was actually a low-grade infectious disease.

Dr. Bruce Hyatt in Baltimore is a good optometrist who cares deeply about dry eye patients. . .To my knowledge, he is now recommending Dr. Holly's drops in some cases. . .

Dr. Geri Seitzman, an ophthalmologist working out of Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, gets consistently good patient reviews. .. I have never seen her, but will try her out soon. . .I think she is a dedicated cornea specialist, and eager to help dry eye patients.

Closer to D.C., there are the doctors associated with the famous expert Michael Lemp, (his name is probably still on the practice, which is/
was located in Bethesda), and a caring Dr. G. (or J) Lustbader, who is at Georgetown University Hospital.

I have personally never had much luck at Wilmer/Hopkins, but Wilmer is easily reachable from the D.C. area, and Dr. Esen Akpek heads up a dry eye clinic there. I believe that Dr. Akpek occasionally enrolls patients into clinical trials. She has a genuine interest in our disorder, but when I was her patient, nothing unusual was attempted for me. .It was just a perpetual prescription for Restasis, even though my problem is primarily atrophied meibomians...