XXVI Congress of the ESCRS

This year's congress of the ESCRS promises to provide a taste of what's new and exciting in the world of cataract and refractive surgery. With around 5 000 delegates and more than 200 exhibitors expected to descend upon Berlin, the five day meeting provides ample opportunity to learn but also to meet and socialize with peers.

"This year's meeting seems to be most promising and interesting again, with an important focus on the innovations that members of the ESCRS and other allied societies have conducted in cataract and refractive surgery, in clinical trials and from industry," said Dr Jorge Alió.

As always, the programme is full of symposia, courses, live surgeries, posters and free papers, so OTE and OTE Editorial Advisory Board member Dr Alió, have taken the liberty of providing some recommendations to help you in your decision-making.

The Refractive Surgery Didactic Course will be taking place during the first day of the meeting, providing surgical skills training courses on refractive procedures. "This course has become a classic in the medical education of refractive surgeons, and will again take place with the most relevant figures in refractive surgery from Europe and internationally. It is probably the most up-to-date intensive course currently available in Europe," Dr Alió told OTE.

The young ophthalmologist is well catered for with this year's Young Ophthalmologist programme, which will run throughout the course of Saturday. This is a full-day session packed with presentations covering basic phaco, cataract complications and special cases, refractive procedures, IOLs and patient management. This session is a must for all young ophthalmologists looking for the perfect, all-round course delivered by some of Europe's finest.

For those interested in learning more about IOL calculations, the clinical research symposium 'IOL lens calculation after corneal/refractive surgery' comes highly recommended by Dr Alió. "I shall be presenting recently updated formulae, limitations of difficult cases and how to solve and avoid problems," said Dr Alió.

Elsewhere, an instructional course on microincision cataract surgery (MICS) and MICS lenses will be delivered by the creator of the concept of surgery through an incision of <1.8 mm, Dr Alió, along with a team of colleagues. With the practice of cataract surgery inevitably evolving towards smaller incisions, this course will highlight the advantages of this technique along with the advances in MICS lens technology and the ease of implementing MICS in practice.

"This course, along with Bausch & Lomb's symposium that will be taking place on Monday 15 September, and chaired by Dr Richard Packard, I believe will complete your medical education on how to decrease your incision size for cataract surgery and how to make adequate IOL selections," advised Dr Alió.

Dr Roberto Bellucci, along with a team of peers, will delve into the topic of cornea endothelial transplant using pre-cut tissue, during an instructional course, which will examine the pros and cons of using pre-cut tissue. Details of eye banking, tissue preparation, patient selection, surgical organization, instrumentation, and two-year experience will be presented during the session.

Later in the day will see Dr Dimitri Dementiev and faculty members deliver a course on phakic IOL implantation and new technologies, paying particular attention to the improvement of patient safety, satisfaction and complications management.

Meanwhile, Dr Rudy Nuijts and colleagues will be running a course on how to manage astigmatism in presbyopic lens exchange patients, paying particular attention to the understanding of the principles of astigmatism and how it can affect refractive outcomes.

"Finally, the video symposium on challenging cases, chaired by Dr Robert Osher, is always an interesting session to attend and will be taking place from 4pm on Saturday," added Dr Alió.