News

All the news from the XXIV Congress of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, held September 9–13 2006 in London, UK.

Microincision cataract surgery (MICS), hailed to be the next big development in cataract surgery, has not had the expected impact on surgeon's practice, David Leaming revealed, whilst detailing the results of his most recent survey on cataract surgery practice in Europe and the US.

Bausch & Lomb has introduced a stable chamber tubing system, as a part of the new micro incision vacuum pack, to its Millennium Micro Incision Cataract Surgery (MICS) platform.

The new *Acri.Lisa (*Acri.Tec) bifocal, acrylic IOL provides very good distance and near visual acuity and sufficient intermediate visual acuity, said Ulrich Mester. Pseudoaccommodation range is 5.5 D and it also offers improved contrast sensitivity. He noted, however, that halos are still present with the lens.

Wavelight has announced the receipt of two regulatory approvals for its intraocular lenses (IOLs), thus expanding its intraocular product range.

According to Oliver Findl, it is becoming increasingly important to use a wider variety of parameters to assess visual quality after cataract surgery in order to gain a better understanding of patient's day-to-day experiences.

Levofloxacin 0.5% eye drops should be the first choice for antibacterial prophylaxis and treatment, according to Professor P. Asbell of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, USA.

The use of foldable intraocular lenses (IOLs) in cataract surgery is a trend that is continuing to rise across Europe, according to Mats Lundstrom speaking at the Outcomes of Cataract and Refractive Surgery symposium.

A large survey has recently been piloted in the UK to demonstrate the use and benefits of electronic data collection with respect to rapidly monitoring the access, delivery and outcome of cataract surgery in the UK's National Health Service (NHS) and to update benchmark standards for these parameters of care.

According to Alessandro Franchini, it is insufficient to design an aspheric lens that maintains a certain degree of spherical aberration simply to achieve a degree of pseudo-accommodation.

The carpenter's rule is measure twice, cut once. The wavefront aberrometry rule should be measure hundreds of times, then analysed, and then cut once, Dr Robert Iskander said.

According to Omid Kermani from the Augenabteilung der PAN-Klinik am Neumarkt, Köln, Germany, and colleagues, the implantation of a foldable toric intraocular lens (IOL) is a safe and predictable procedure for the correction of high pre-existing corneal astigmatism in cataract surgery.

According to Alaa El Danasoury and colleagues, Toric ICL (TICL; STAAR Surgical) implantation is safe, effective and predictable in its correction of compound myopic astigmatism.

Although image quality has a clear influence on visual acuity, it does not account for all the individual variability of other factors that must be involved including, measurement errors, or wavefront, optical or neural factors, Raymond Applegate said.

Howard Fine, MD, speaking at the ISRS/AAO symposium, believes that the answer to correcting presbyopia lies in accommodating lenses rather than multifocal intraocular lenses (IOLs).

The IntraLase femtosecond FS30 laser creates a more predictable and more stable flap thickness than the Hansatome XP microkeratome (Bausch & Lomb) and the IntraLase femtosecond FS2 laser, according to research conducted by Baha Toygar and colleagues from Turkey.

Tensioning of Schlemm's canal may reduce intraocular pressure (IOP) in non-penetrating surgical treatment of open angle glaucoma (OAG), according to the results of a study conducted by Manfred Tetz and colleagues from Germany.

According to Zdenek Gregor of Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, UK, prevention of endophthalmitis will always be preferable to a cure. While the use of preoperative povidone iodine has managed to decrease the incidence of the infection, the hope is that per-operative intracameral antibiotics will further fuel a decrease in incidence of this worrying consequence of cataract surgery.

Among the different IOL options for presbyopia, monofocals are probably by far the most practically used ones said Thomas Neuhann. He added that competing options must be able to beat an already high level of success and patient satisfaction.

In most eyes, the benefits of refractive lens exchange (RLE) outweigh the risks and it can provide a large improvement in patient quality of life, David Hardten said.

According to Manfred Tetz and colleagues, Germany, dilation and tensioning of Schlemm's canal may be an effective, non-penetrating surgical method for the treatment of open angle glaucoma (OAG).

Khiun Tjia of the Netherlands believes that the new micro coaxial Aqualase tip (Alcon) is a promising tool for safe capsular bag cleaning and that treatment of the equatorial region using the tip could reduce posterior capsule opacification (PCO).

Selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) is an effective treatment for glaucoma and offers good long term outlooks, according to Madhu Nagar of the Clayton Eye Centre, UK.

Clear corneal incisions and silicon IOLs are new risk factors in post-cataract surgery endophthalimitis, Peter Barry revealed in the first presentation of the full ESCRS endophthalmitis study results.

Instability in the pressure line could explain the pumping phenomena sometimes reported during cataract surgery, according to Carlos Verges, Jorge Cazal and Cosme Lavin of the Department of Ophthalmology, Institut Universitari Dexeus, Barcelona, Spain.

It is possible to achieve a lower rate of endophthalmitis with a single injection of cefuroxime at the conclusion of cataract surgery than by using the more traditional subconjunctival/topical regimens, according to Per Montan of the St Erik Eye Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.

Swiss firm, Ziemer Ophthalmic Systems took advantage of the ESCRS congress to reveal its femtosecond laser Da Vinci to the ophthalmic community.

Mixing and matching diffractive and refractive multifocal lenses increases overall visual performance by enhancing range of vision, according to Angel López Castro of the Laservisión Clínica Oftalmológica in Madrid, Spain.

Refractive lens exchange (RLE) is not reversible so doctors need to apply their surgical wisdom to identify the most appropriate cases, Jorge Alió of the Instituto Oftalmologico de Alicante, Spain said. Often indications are based on the simplicity of the procedure but that doesn't always balance well with the best patient benefit.

Selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) is effective as both a primary and a secondary treatment for patients with ocular hypertension or primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), according to the results of two studies presented at the Ellex symposium.