Inflammation & Infection

The EMEA committee for Orphan Medicinal Products has adopted a positive opinion on orphan medicinal product designation for Isotechnika's ISA247, a treatment for chronic, non-infectious uveitis.

The use of intracameral cefuroxime at the end of cataract surgery reduces the occurrence of postoperative endophthalmitis.

Recent trials have demonstrated progress is being made in the treatment of uveitis, with the last 12 months yielding almost 2,000 scientific citations. Dr Emmett Cunningham investigates the most significant advances.

AMO is voluntarily recalling its Complete MoisturePlus contact lens solutions after receiving data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) linking the solution with an increase in the occurrence of the eye infection, acanthamoeba keratitis.

The FDA has approved InSite Vision's New Drug Application (NDA) for AzaSite (azithromycin 1%) for the treatment of bacterial conjunctivitis.

Ophthalmic solutions that contain steroids are 5.8 times more likely to be contaminated than steroid-free solutions.

Assessing povidone-iodine as method for preventing endophthalmitis.

Azithromycin is just as effective and safe as tobramycin for the treatment of purulent bacterial conjunctivitis, according to a report published in the April issue of the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

Novagali Pharma has reported positive results from a Phase III clinical study investigating the use of its drug candidate, Vekacia, as a treatment for paediatric Vernal Keratoconjunctivitis (VKC).

A single intravitreal injection of bevacizumab can aid short-term improvement in visual acuity (VA) and decrease optimal coherence tomography (OCT) retinal thickness in patients with uveitic cystoid macular oedema (CME), according to a recent study published in the March issue of Opthalmology.

Lux Biosciences has begun treating patients in a pivotal clinical trial programme of LX211.

The FDA has granted orphan drug designation to two of Lux Bioscience's investigational therapies.

A new fixed combination of dexamethasone and netilmicin offers an effective and safe way to control ocular inflammation after cataract surgery.

Pre-soaked IOLs may provide an excellent way to deliver fourth-generation fluoroquinolones to prevent endophthalmitis.

Acanthamoeba is a ubiquitous, free-living protozoan that rarely causes ocular disease other than troublesome keratitis.1-5 It remains restricted to the cornea, either because the trophozoites cannot penetrate Descemet's membrane and the corneal endothelium in order to enter the anterior chamber (AC), or the trophozoites are able to enter the anterior chamber but the cells of the innate immune apparatus prevent it from progressing to cause an intraocular infection.

At the ESCRS congress in September, Peter Barry presented the full ESCRS endophthalmitis study results and controversially stated that, not only is the incidence of endophthalmitis higher than reported in the literature, but the risk of infection is further increased by clear corneal incisions and the use of silicon IOLs.

Ophthalmology is a branch of medicine that we, as ophthalmologists, regard as an elite branch of medicine and others, such as general surgeons and physicians, often consider as a minor and sometimes easy discipline. As a result of this misdirected preconception, a general practitioner, consultant or physician may not feel it necessary to fully inform us of a patient's health record because they do not consider that ophthalmic medications could, potentially, carry with them serious, sometimes life threatening side effects, if used inappropriately.

First described in 1881 by Litten 1 and attributed to Albert Terson, a French ophthalmologist who later described it in 1900, 2 Terson's syndrome is a condition defined as vitreous haemorrhage occurring in association with a subdural or subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). Here, Bastawrous and his team of colleagues describe a patient with Terson's syndrome and subsequent Candida endophthalmitis.

Postoperative endophthalmitis is a rare but potentially devastating intraocular infection, which could lead to severe and permanent visual impairment or even the loss of an eye.1-3 With the average life expectancy on the increase, the prevalence of cataract in the older population and therefore the cataract surgical rate has increased in recent decades.1,3 Many have voiced their concerns that this rise in the number of surgical procedures could bring with it a rise in incidence of endophthalmitis, hence, evaluation of postoperative infection incidence is extremely important in every clinical setting.

Results of a study evaluating post-cataract surgery endophthalmitis at a regional tertiary referral centre in England show no evidence of an increase in incidence over a recent period of almost eight years, reported Omar M. Durrani, FRCS.