News

Arun C. Gulani, MD, explains his concept of addressing anterior corneal scars with laser PRK (not PTK) straight to 20/20. In the next article, he will explain how to build the cornea with various modalities in presenting it for laser PRK.

Johnson & Johnson Vision Care is offering an educational brochure, “Eye Health and Allergies.” The complimentary brochure is designed to provide patients with useful information on how eye allergies occur, common signs and symptoms, and practical advice on how to treat eye allergies.

A phase III VISTA-DME trial of aflibercept (Eylea) injection-a treatment for diabetic macular edema (DME)-showed a sustained improvement from baseline in the best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) at week 100, compared with laser photocoagulation.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was designed to provide health insurance for millions of uninsured citizens with no exclusions for pre-existing conditions, expanded services like screening and preventive health coverage, and be less costly for patients and the government.

The Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) has named one of its own-Rohit Varma, MD, MPH-to become chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology and director of the USC Eye Institute, as well as to serve as professor of ophthalmology and preventive medicine and hold the Grace and Emery Beardsley Chair in Ophthalmology.

Studies evaluating treatment of progressive keratoconus with corneal crosslinking (CXL) show greater benefit using an epithelium-off versus epithelium-on technique. However, epithelial removal by laser-assisted phototherapeutic keratectomy (PTK) may give better results than manual debridement, according to a study presented by Ronald N. Gaster, MD.

Aerie Pharmaceuticals Inc. has announced dosing of the first patients enrolled in its phase IIb study of PG324, a novel fixed-combination treatment for glaucoma or ocular hypertension.

Is it practical for medical practices to retain only stellar employees and pay them well above other practices, while letting one-fourth to one-fifth of their workforce go every year, to be replaced by new workers who will hopefully prove to be stellar? Would it be consistent with the culture of medical practices to reproduce the Netflix system of “high performance”?

Several new refractive surgical platforms have been introduced recently, and many ophthalmologists are discovering they find the new technologies to be more efficient and produce better results.

According to recent study results, transepithelial photorefractive keratectomy is a better alternative procedure than other refractive methods when treating myopia that involves epithelium mechanical manipulation.

Calculating intraocular lens (IOL) powers has become simpler and more accurate in eyes with long and short axial lengths with use of intraoperative aberrometry and an optimized method of regression analysis.

Results of a study comparing matched groups of eyes undergoing myopic correction by small-incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) or LASIK show that the optical quality was better and the cornea retained higher tensile strength after the flapless SMILE procedure.