News

When considering the Boston type 1 keratoprosthesis as the evidence-based procedure of choice for managing cornea graft failure, superior visual outcomes must be weighed against greater risk of sight-threatening complications.

Ophthalmology Times is pleased to announce Igor I. Bussel, MD, MS, MHA, and Deepinder K. Dhaliwal, MD (faculty sponsor), of the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh/UPMC Eye Center, Pittsburgh, as the second-place winner of the 2017 Resident Writer’s Award Program, sponsored by Allergan. Their entry is featured here.

Dr. Francesco Oddone, Head of the Glaucoma Research Unit at Bietti Foundation, Rome, speaks about the most interesting features of COMPASS, the unique automatic perimeter combined with a scanning ophthalmoscope, able to provide retinal threshold sensitivity as well as confocal images of the retina.

David Lin, MD, Medical Director Pacific Laser Eye Centre in Vancouver, Canada, shares his experiences with SCHWIND SmartSurfACE treatment and how this procedure completely transformed the way of the clinic performing laser surgery.

The doctor’s doctor

A few months into my residency, a patient and her husband came to see me in clinic. The history revealed they had already sought the opinions of two internationally acknowledged giants in the field of retinal disease, one of whom was a department chairman. The answers they received on those visits had differed somewhat, so they were now coming to get the tie-breaking third opinion. “Thank goodness they have no idea I am just a first-year resident,” I thought to myself.

Many new diagnostic tools are available for dry eye and ocular surface disease (OSD). Treatments for dry eye and OSD have mixed results, however, said Bennie H. Jeng, MD.

Recently, there has been a greater interest in metrics focused upon the impact of dry eye disease on everyday activities such as reading, driving, or use of various visual display devices. These efforts provide a “real-life” assessment of how dry eye disease impacts vision-related activities.

Patients use artificial tears for different reasons and diverse conditions. While available products supplement tear production and provide relief, few distinctions between drops have been clearly established. Recent studies show that direct comparison of a new product to an older, established one and use of “real-world” metrics can be most useful to prescribers.

The first portable, external neurostimulator to be approved in eye care stimulates endogenous tear production without physical irritation. The device can dramatically reduce symptoms and may enable patients to stop use of some or all tear substitutes or medications, noted John Sheppard, MD, MMSc.

Comorbidity of glaucoma poses some increased risks for cataract surgery, but even when there are intraoperative complications during the lens removal procedure, it is almost always possible to still add micro-invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS), said Reay H. Brown, MD.