Ophthalmology practice with university-level standards in the heart of Graz
The eyeside group practice at Merangasse 30 in Graz combines two areas of focus that are rarely found together in Austria’s private practice setting: highly specialised eye surgery for standard and complex cases, and clinical, conservative ophthalmology at university level. Both doctors are contracted physicians with contracts with all health insurance providers.

Priv.-Doz. Dr. Werner Wackernagel has more than 20 years of surgical experience and over 10,000 microsurgical eye operations. As one of the few office-based eye surgeons in Austria, he routinely performs both cataract surgery in the anterior segment and retinal and vitreous surgery in the posterior segment at university level. This dual qualification makes him the preferred surgeon for complex and demanding cases – for example, cataract surgery after previous retinal surgery, in cases of subluxated lens, pseudoexfoliation syndrome (PEX), after eye injury, or combined phaco-vitrectomies. Patients also benefit from this broad surgical experience in standard cataract surgery: special situations that would require referral in pure cataract centres can be treated here confidently by the same surgeon. From 2018 to 2022, he chaired the Commission for Oncology and Pathology of the Austrian Ophthalmological Society (ÖOG).

Dr. Mona Schneider is one of Austria’s most experienced ophthalmologists in clinical, conservative ophthalmology, particularly in the differential diagnostic work-up of complex conditions. As long-standing head of the Neuro-Ophthalmology Outpatient Clinic at the University Eye Clinic Graz, she developed this area into Austria’s reference centre and led it into the European Union’s European Reference Network (ERN) as an Affiliated Partner. Her diagnostic focus areas are optic nerve diseases and neurologically caused visual disorders, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy, as well as ophthalmo-oncology. Surgically, she complements the eyeside spectrum in eyelid surgery, both plastic-reconstructive and oncological.

Our standards
eyeside sees itself as a university-affiliated specialist centre in the private practice setting – with the aim of combining the quality of a university clinic with the accessibility, continuity and trust of a contracted practice. Operations are performed as day surgery or inpatient procedures in our own state-of-the-art operating theatre in the practice or at Privatklinikum Leech in Graz. Complex and combined procedures as well as second opinions are a deliberate focus of our work.