COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic changed medicine forever, and now scientists are forging a new path for healthcare in the future, including in ophthalmology.

Researchers at the University of Missouri School of Medicine have conducted a study in a humanized mouse model to show that infections can occur deep inside the eye by penetrating the blood-retinal barrier.

Researchers conducted a retrospective chart review spanning from January 2015 to January 2021 to compare the incidence rates of infectious keratitis before and during the pandemic among PRK patients.

A recent study found that despite worldwide reports of ocular inflammatory events being reported after patients received COVID-19 vaccinations, a low amount has been reported in the UK.

Student confidence in dealing with ophthalmic conditions is down, deterring them from considering ophthalmology as a career.

Korean researchers reported Ptosis was associated with COVID-19 vaccination, while Guillain-Barré syndrome/Miller Fisher syndrome was associated with the COVID-19 infection.

The 6-month-old boy’s dark brown eyes turned deep blue after he was treated for COVID with favipiravir.

The study from New Zealand was conducted on an otherwise healthy 28-year-old woman.

While these complications are rare, they require prompt diagnosis and management to prevent serious visual morbidity.

A large cohort study found that there is no association between the first mRNA COVID-19 vaccinations and acute RVO.

Disruption affected ophthalmology, altering physicians’ education, careers.

The study aims to understand how SARS-CoV-2 affects the eyes and whether it could serve as a virus infection route.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to greater comfort with robotic telepresence in eye screenings.

DME showed small significant improvement in study cohort.

The survey, from The Larry A. Greene Center and the Primary Care Collaborative, found that the COVID-19 pandemic has had an adverse impact on the well-being of physicians.

Researchers found that the rate of visual decline increased significantly in patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) during the COVID-19 lockdown who were followed over time.

A study detailed at the 22nd EURETINA Congress in Hamburg, Germany, documented a spectrum of manifestations following COVID-19 infections in an otherwise immunocompetent patient presenting at a tertiary care center.

Researchers have found that social media use among physicians jumped during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the role it plays in networking, mentorship and support among ophthalmologists remains unknown.

The debate continues about the protective effect of eyeglasses against contracting the COVID-19 virus. Researchers from Denmark reported that their results were inconclusive regarding whether wearing eyeglasses is linked with a decreased risk of COVID-19 infections.

Symptoms in the eye may not be substantial in patients with COVID-19.

For health care workers, the pandemic has led to increased burnout, concerns about workplace safety, and staffing shortages that threaten not only patient care but also the entire provider ecosystem.

During a presentation at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology’s 2022 annual meeting in Denver, Yuichi Hori, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that taping the top border of a surgical mask to a clinicians’ skin reduces the potential for ocular surface damage resulting from expirations of air reaching the ocular surface during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study, by investigators from the Casey Eye Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, supported the use of at-home tests during teleophthalmology care, an important point considering the significant drop in in-person VA evaluations during the pandemic.

The country’s Ministry of Health has issued infringement notices to two ophthalmologist for seeing patients while unvaccinated.

Investigators theorize that the ophthalmic nerve may be affected by the COVID-19 virus, and therefore may affect the corneal esthesiometry values.

Investigators have questioned the potential for the vascular density to be a biomarker for microvascular abnormalities following COVID-19 and found that longitudinal studies are needed to determine this.

Investigators at the Eye Clinic, Department of Medicine, Surgery and Health Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy, found that the appearance of the retina and optic disc was associated with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

A pair of Japanese ophthalmologists have concluded that SARS-CoV-2 may target lacrimal gland tissue and manifest as chronic inflammation.

According to investigators at the University of Washington, Seattle, the COVID-19 pandemic has made measuring IOP challenging because of the potential to spread the virus.