Istvan
Gyorffy
(1912-1999) studied at the Medical Faculty of the University Peter Pazmany,
Budapest, 1930-36 before being employed at the Second Ophthalmic Hospital of the
same university from 1936-1986. Initially he worked under Josef Dallos but when
Dallos moved to London in 1937, Gyorrfy
found himself head of the very busy contact lens clinic without the means of
manufacture as Dallos had taken all the equipment from the medical school for
making contact lenses.While visiting his sister in Frankfurt he discovered poly methyl
methacrylate (PMMA) recently marketed as Plexiglass by the German firm of Rohm
& Hass and also to be known as Altuglas in
France, Perspex made by ICI in the
UK
and Lucite by Dupont
USA.He found that sheets of 1mm thickness could be used to make scleral
lenses by casting.In a publication of 1937 he showed that PMMA is a thermoplastic polymer
that with heat can be moulded on casts taken from eye impressions to form
scleral lenses.Mullen in the
USA
and Dudragne in
France
also claimed this as a first.In 1963 Dr Gyorrfy adapted his casting technique with sheets of PMMA to
the manufacture of corneal lenses.His process was used in the
USSR, Bulgaria, other Iron Curtain countries and in
New Zealand
by the optometrist Peter Heginbotham of
Wellington. In all Gyorffy estimated that he fitted more than 10,000 patients over 33
years at the hospital and in his own practice, published more than 100 papers
and visited many congresses around the world.
