News

Professor Rudy Nuijts, Professor James Wolffsohn, Dr Mark Cherny and Dr David Frazer share their views on the taboo topic of refractive surprise in cataract surgery. They explain what it means to have a refractive surprise, why they occur, the importance of patient satisfaction and the options available to surgeons (including Rayner Sulcoflex® case studies) when a situation involving a refractive surprise arises.

Professor Marc De Smet talks about the impact of Ozurdex in treating diabetic macular edema (DME) in the real world clinical setting. This renowned expert in the DME field, explores what the licensing of Ozurdex in DME means to both patients and retinal specialists when treating this potentially blinding condition.

Professor Anat Lowenstein talks about the impact of Ozurdex in treating diabetic macular edema (DME) in the real world clinical setting. This renowned expert in the DME field, explores what the licensing of Ozurdex in DME means to both patients and retinal specialists when treating this potentially blinding condition.

Take-home message: A novel approach to scleral suture fixation of a rotated in-the-bag toric IOL stabilizes the implant at the desired axis and prevents rotation in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions.

Contact lens-Assisted corneal crosslinking (CA-CXL) is a novel technique in which a riboflavin-soaked ultraviolet (UV) barrier-free soft contact lens is applied over the denuded cornea prior to UVA irradiation. It is used to allow CXL in eyes with a thin cornea and has been associated with good results, and can be done with a standard or accelerated CXL protocol.

A new contact lens to treat corneal edema after cataract surgery had favorable results in a group of 33 patients with corneal edema after extracapsular cataract extraction and IOL implantation and refractive lens exchange.

A small case series of patients has shown that use of beta-blocker drops may be a simple and inexpensive way to eliminate pain in patients with acute migraines.

The introduction of a femtosecond laser for cataract surgery into a practice can bring the concern for the potental loss of efficiency. A Louisville surgeon provides some solid advice and shares some strategies to make this new technology as efficient as possible.

Patients treated with Omidria (phenylephrine and ketorolac injection 1%/0.3%, Omeros) reported significantly less early postoperative pain following cataract surgery or IOL exchange than patients treated with placebo and also had significantly lower analgesic use. These findings suggest that use of Omidria could help improve patient satisfaction with these procedures.

The American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting returns to Las Vegas on Nov. 14 to 17 at the Sands Expo/Venetian. Attendees will encounter a “full house” of educational options from which to choose.

Intraoperative aberrometry aphakic and pseudophakic readings can be comparable with careful control of surgical variables. Both readings can be useful to predict postoperative manifest refraction.

Society has variable expectations about the integrity with which people conduct themselves.

Here are the top 5 glaucoma news stories on Ophthalmology Times this year.

The glasses prescribing patterns of a pediatric ophthalmology group differed from the guidelines issued by the American Academy of Ophthalmology for infants less than age 1 year but were similar for children age 1 to 3 years, a study found. The study also demonstrated the efficacy of using electronic medical records for assessing physician decision-making.

Understanding of keratoconus and the resulting dramatic changes in management in recent years have given rise to treatment paradigms that would have been unrecognizable to ophthalmologists a generation ago. The new landscape features a wider range of treatment options, better diagnostic and monitoring tools, and better understanding of the underlying pathology of the disease.

The XEN Gel Stent is a micro-fistula implant designed to lower IOP without relying on physiologic outflow pathways – it connects the anterior chamber to the subconjunctival space. Prospective data from more than 900 surgeries from around the world support the safety and efficacy of this device.

Anti-integrin therapy is a promising new approach in the treatment of vitreoretinal disease. The first drug in this class, Allegro Ophthalmics’ Luminate, is in Phase 2 clinical trials for several indications, including wet age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy, and vitreomacular traction.

The rate of postoperative cystoid macular edema was lower in a recent study of nearly 1,000 cataract surgery patients at two sites using intravitreal transzonular antibiotic and steroid prophylaxis than in previous studies with topical administration.

An endoscope can improve outcomes in cases in which the view through the traditional operating microscope is known to be compromised preoperatively, and is a good backup if a problem makes visualization difficult intraoperatively.

Noncompliance with glaucoma medication is a familiar issue. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but aiming for simplicity, consistency, and stability from the start of treatment could help more patients adhere to their treatment plan.

Once-daily dosing of one drop of Roclatan (Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Inc.), containing a fixed-dose combination of latanoprost and a rho kinase inhibitor and norepinephrine transport inhibitor, was clinically and statistically superior to administration of its individual components for controlling IOP in open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension.

Evidence suggests that nitric oxide can modify both mechanical and vascular events in primary open-angle glaucoma pathogenesis.

OCT angiography (AngioPlex OCT Angiography) is now available as an upgrade to the CIRRUS 5000 HD-OCT platform (Carl Zeiss Meditec). The technology allows visualization of the blood flow and microvasculature in the retina, choriocapillaris, and choroid with the ease of noninvasive imaging.

A knowledgeable optician is obviously an asset to an ophthalmology practice that is wanting to make computer lenses available to a greater number of its appropriate patients.

Ophthalmologists discuss the importance of routine contrast sensitivity and glare testing in cataract-age adults and specifically the use of a platform that includes a real-world driver’s scene.

In order to test the authors intriguing hypothesis that topical beta blockers improve acute migraine we will need a well-designed, statistically valid, large sample size, randomized, double masked, placebo controlled, clinical trial that would have defined primary outcome measures as well as strict inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Ultra-widefield (UWF) imaging provides clinicians a much broader view of the retinal periphery. The Optos California uses multiple UWF imaging modalities, including color, autofluorescence, fluorescein angiography (FA), and indocyanine green (ICG) angiography in a 200° picture.