News

Female cataract surgery patients are more likely to assess their postoperative visual function as worse than male patients.

March's research news

The M2 microkeratome (Moria), the Carriazo-Pendular microkeratome (Schwind) and the IntraLase femtosecond laser all create flaps of predictable thickness.

Incision sizes needed to remove cataracts have been significantly reduced by new technology, such as the vision enhancement system (Stellaris; Bausch & Lomb) which allows surgeons to make two 1.8 mm cuts on either side of the eye.

According to an article in UK newspaper The Sunday Times, blind children in the UK are being taught to "see" by using the same method used by bats, dolphins, and whales: clicking their tongues.

Oxidative stress is an early event in hydrostatic pressure/intraocular pressure-induced (IOP) neuronal damage.

April Editorial List

When the amount of optic nerve damage is taken into account, there is little difference in the optic disc topography of patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and those with primary angle-closure glaucoma.

Optic disc pit prevalence increases with age and is strongly associated with high-pressure open-angle glaucoma.

Twenty-three gauge transconjunctival sutureless vitrectomy is an effective surgical technique for the management of vitreoretinal diseases.

A blind person's sight has been restored by surgeons at the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG) for the first time in Europe using American technology.

MacuSight has announced positive preliminary data from the Phase I study of its lead product candidate for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), sirolimus.

A study published in the January issue of Antimicrobial Agents & Chemotherapy, has found that the high proportion of corneal infections linked to contact lens solutions are fuelled and made resistant to treatment by the formation of a highly resistant structure of microbial cells held together with a glue-like matrix material, called biofilms.

The use of glaucoma drainage surgery is decreasing in Britain, which may be explained by an increase in cataract extraction, according to a report published in the January issue of Eye.

Using a telemedicine system to assist ophthalmologists in developing countries with the diagnosis and management of various ophthalmic conditions can be successful.

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Wavefront-guided LASIK is a safe and efficacious way to correct moderate to high myopia and compound myopic astigmatism.

In eyes that have undergone corneal refractive surgery, non-Goldmann measurements of intraocular pressure (IOP) and continued examination of the optic nerve is essential as changes of the corneal shape can lead to falsely low IOP values.

A more holistic approach to patient referral and rehabilitation provision for people with low vision is required.

Systematic screening for diabetic retinopathy (DR) has been identified as a cost-effective use of health service resources,1-4 with national screening programmes based on digital photography being implemented across Europe. In Scotland, images are captured at local screening centres and sent electronically to one of nine regional grading centres, where they are manually graded using a three-level system (Figure 1).

Modern intraocular lenses (IOLs) transmit only a part of the spectrum, just like natural lenses, but the transmission of the natural lens changes with age. With increasing age, the lens becomes far less transparent in the violet/blue part of the visible spectrum. Can the transmission of an IOL, therefore, be compared to that of the natural lens at a certain age? In other words, can we assign a virtual age to an IOL? The answer is yes and such an age is far easier to interpret than the complicated transmission curves provided by industry.

The lack of public knowledge about glaucoma surprises me. Although pretty much everybody has heard of it, little is generally known other than the fact that it affects the eye.

Sreening for early ectatic disease is essential in the evaluation of the refractive surgical candidate. There have, however, been many cases of severe post-LASIK ectasia without evidence of preoperative risk factors. Improving preoperative screening with better detection of subtle corneal topographic abnormalities may therefore help eliminate these rare but devastating cases.

Refractive surgery has come a long way since the first lamellar refractive surgeries were performed decades ago. Through continuous fine-tuning and evolution, LASIK has become today's dominant refractive procedure. However, as with all medical procedures, there is always room for improvement.

Events that have taken place in the market of contact lens hygiene and care products over the last two years give the impression that the hygiene scene is again in crisis. A crisis which is perhaps comparable with the "chlorhexidine shock" of almost three decades ago, which raised the question "is there a completely effective, safe and trouble-free way of caring for contact lenses?"

Cataract surgeons agree that proper incision construction is paramount for achieving good postoperative stability that will reduce the risk for endophthalmitis. The safety of the clear cornea incision technique versus use of other incision types remains controversial, however.

As a modern ophthalmic surgeon, I feel a reading test for clinical practice must be highly standardized, accurate, easy and quick to perform, whilst also offering the opportunity to perform research.

New developments in diagnostic technology should enable better screening and follow-up of refractive surgery patients, said Dan Z. Reinstein, MD, delivering a keynote address during the refractive surgery subspecialty day preceding the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in November 2007.

The clinical assessment of an anterior chamber inflammatory reaction may be difficult to determine in eyes where corneal clarity is reduced by corneal oedema. Slit lamp examination is currently the gold standard method to assess inflammation1-3 but in conditions such as poor corneal clarity, the clinician routinely encounters difficulties.

Researchers from the University of Iowa, USA have discovered that a gene and related signaling pathway play a role in the development of glaucoma.