Selig Percy Amoils

Who is Selig Percy Amoils?

Selig Percy Amoils, FRCS, born 1933, is a South African ophthalmologist and biomedical engineering inventor. In 1965, Amoils refined the cryoextraction method of cataract surgery by developing a cryoprobe that was cooled through the Joule-Thomson effect of gas expansion. His system is still widely used in the fields of ophthalmology and gynaecology.

Amoils was also awarded a patent for his "rotary epithelial scrubber", an improvement on the brush first developed by Ioannis Pallikaris that removes corneal epithelial cells in preparation for photorefractive keratectomy. Another development of his in 1970, was the diamond vitrectomy cutter, various instruments enabling micro-control of blade depth in radial keratotomy, as well as the oval comparator, or astigmometer, to control astigmatism after cataract surgery.