News

Despite growing profits over a decade, an ophthalmic practice’s optical dispensary profits were not growing along the same curve. This case study highlights how an optical dispensary inventory management firm may be able to identify strategies to boost capture-rate underperformance.

Regardless of the outcome of the presidential race, there is much about practice management and leadership to be learned from mainstream media’s coverage of the two front-runners’ race to the White House.

Tear osmolarity testing provides clinicians the opportunity to detect disease and select treatments to restore ocular surface health.

Researchers studied the magnitude of bacterial load reduction on the surface of the skin 20 minutes after application of saline containing 0.01% pure hypochlorous acid as the preservative to the skin below the lower eyelid.

A new handheld, tear osmolarity device could enhance the convenience and reliability of dry eye screening and monitoring and be more affordable for many practices.

A novel potent epithelial sodium channel blocker seems to be a safe and well-tolerated therapy in patients with symptoms of mild-to-moderate dry eye disease compared with placebo.

Trifocal IOLs can provide good uncorrected vision at near, intermediate, and far. Outcomes in a series of 30 patients show that a toric version of a trifocal IOL (AT Lisa tri 939MP, Carl Zeiss Meditec) delivers those benefits for patients with > 1 D of corneal astigmatism.

Take-home: With the approval of a new surgical device aimed at lowering IOP, surgeons explore benefits of micro-stent implantation.

Analyses of data from 293 eyes undergoing uncomplicated Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) show that endothelial cell loss is greater in eyes that undergo a single re-bubbling for graft separation. The study, however, does not establish a causal association.

This meteorological phenomenon is considered to have given rise to one of the most commonly misused phrases in the English language. Some people think the phrase means that the situation is a tumultuous one, as when The Economist magazine reported: “French bank shares, which have been in the eye of the storm, recovered sharply (BNP Paribas was up 13% on the day while Societe Generale rose by 5%).”

A series of treatments using intense pulsed light with optimal pulse technology may show potential in patients with meibomian gland dysfunction.

A dropless option for steroid therapy showed encouraging results in a phase II safety and efficacy study in patients with inflammatory dry eye disease.

Follow-up from a study enrolling 200 patients with meibomian gland dysfuction showed a single treatment with vectored thermal pulsation afforded improvements in symptoms and meibomian gland function.

Semifluorinated alkane technology has novel physicochemical properties that explain its benefits as an ocular lubricant and support its use for developing a well-tolerated, preservative-free, multidose preparation of cyclosporine.

Learn why ophthalmologists are tasked with the most important profession during this presidential election!

Isolated Bowman layer transplantation can reduce and stabilize corneal ectasia in eyes with progressive advanced keratoconus, researchers said. “It flattens the cornea into a more normal position,” said Jack Parker, MD, a researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Innovative Ocular Surgery (NIIOS) in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. “It doesn’t give them perfect vision, but it keeps them from getting worse. It lets them to continue wearing their contact lenses.”

Well tolerated and effective, anti-VEGF therapy is the current gold standard to treat DME. However, one treatment simply does not fit all and VEGF may just be one piece of a much larger puzzle. The fact that some DME patients have a limited response to anti-VEGF therapy is representative of this concept; we are discovering that there are additional inflammatory mediators that may be crucial components to the DME picture.

When performing IOL exchange in eyes with anterior capsule phimosis, use of a femtosecond laser to create a secondary anterior capsulotomy can allow in-the-bag placement of the new IOL.

Metabolic insult from silicone oil exposure can cause lens epithelial cells to undergo fibrous metaplasia, making the lens capsule resistant to tearing. Instead of persisting in trying to initiate a tear, surgeons should use an instrument to cut through the fibrotic material. This non-standard approach for opening the capsule recognizes potential for capsular fibrosis in eyes filled with silicone oil.

The number of patients with glaucoma will rise dramatically in the future because of growth in both the size of the aged population and in demographic groups at high-risk for the disease. Ophthalmology, however, is not equipped to handle the increasing demand for services considering workforce projections and current models of care.

Results from 2 years of follow-up in a large, prospective comparative study show that conventional corneal crosslinking (C-CXL) and accelerated CXL (A-CXL) are similarly safe and effective for stabilizing keratoconus progression in eyes with mild-to-moderate disease, said Tulika Chauhan, MD, at AAO 2016.

Thomas A. Oetting, MD, MS, shared five pearls for operating in eyes with small pupils. In the follow-up discussion, panel members commented on their experiences with newer options for small pupil management.

About one-half of people diagnosed with uveal melanoma ultimately develop metastatic disease. A look at survival rates for patients with uveal melanoma indicate that not much has changed in the past several decades or even for the past 100-plus years. Nevertheless, there is good reason to be optimistic about the future considering the recent developments and ongoing research in this field, said Mary Beth Aronow, MD, at Ocular Oncology and Pathology 2016.

Available evidence indicates that long-term IOP fluctuation is an important factor in glaucoma progression, said Joseph Caprioli, MD. Based on this information he encouraged ophthalmologists to consider IOP “modulation” rather than “reduction.”

Findings from a single-surgeon consecutive series including 97 eyes with up to 12 years of follow-up provide realistic insights for corneal surgeons about long-term outcomes after implantation of the Boston keratoprosthesis type 1 (“Boston KPro”; Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary). The information-which included analyses of visual acuity results, device retention rates, and complications associated with the permanent keratoprosthesis-was presented by Anthony J. Aldave, MD, at Cornea 2016.

Adding a topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) to treatment with a topical corticosteroid significantly reduces the incidence of clinical pseudophakic cystoid macular edema (PCME) in at-risk eyes.

Under the best of circumstances-meaning when cataract surgery is performed in an eye with a normal cornea by expert hands and with use of an advanced IOL power calculation formula-the achieved refractive outcome will be more than 0.5 D off target in 1 out of every 11 eyes.