News

Adelaide, Australia—Ophthalmic laser manufacturer Laserex has appointed Simon Luscombe as vice president of sales, Asia, in an effort to increase its Asian market share. Luscombe previously was in product management and sales management positions at Alcon and Advanced Medical Optics.

San Diego—The San Diego Eye Bank offers monthly "grand rounds" meetings with an opportunity to earn 1 or 2 hours of continuing medical education (CME) credit .

Fairfax, VA—The American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) has improved its Web site to be more user-friendly.

Rochester, NY—Bausch & Lomb introduces a Web site to promote its SofPort Advanced Optics IOL and Easy-Load Lens Delivery System for cataract surgery.

Alpharetta, GA—When the global management of Novartis decided to shut down its ophthalmic operations in Duluth, GA, in early 2003 and relocate to New Jersey, Dan Myers, then president of Novartis Ophthalmics/North America, thought he would leave the company and have the next 6 months to relax.

I do not travel much, but recently was excited to represent my department at a special once-in-a-lifetime meeting in Asia. First, I flew to Chicago. A few hundred of us then piled into a 747 at 11 a.m., and the jet taxied out onto the runway. About to take off, we suddenly veered off to the side of the runway, the engines went dead, and fire trucks were visible heading our way.

San Francisco—Whether using a conventional ablation technique or CustomCornea (Alcon Laboratories) wavefront-guided procedures, all-laser LASIK (IntraLASIK) performed with femtosecond microkeratome (IntraLase) flap creation affords better efficacy and safety outcomes compared with surgery performed with mechanical microkeratome-created flaps, according to the results of a retrospective study conducted by Ella G. Faktorovich, MD.

Lisbon, Portugal—Two new innovations in cataract surgery should improve the efficiency for the surgeon and the outcome for the patient, reported Steven Dewey, MD.

Lisbon, Portugal—Epi-LASIK is a safe and effective alternative refractive procedure to treat patients with low and moderate levels of myopia, according to Vikentia Katsanevaki, MD, PhD. One-year data indicate that patients have good refractive results and stable vision.

Montr?al—Acute-onset endophthalmitis is an uncommon event after cataract surgery in the new millennium (the rate equals 0.04%). Possible risk factors include intraoperative complications, relative immune compromise, use of lidocaine 2% gel before povidone-iodine preparation, and an inferior location of the incision, according to Harry W. Flynn Jr., MD, at the American Society of Retina Specialists meeting.

Sometimes physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other health-care providers make mistakes. A few statistics generated by the Institute of Medicine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and others highlight the problem.

Orlando—In a small interventional case series, more than two-thirds of patients undergoing LASIK for correction of a high degree of anisometropia had improved stereopsis following surgery, according to Scott E. Olitsky, MD.

Orlando—Refractive surgery may be an option for treating children with high myopia and neurobehavioral disorders who are unable to use either of the two principal methods of correcting myopia, spectacles or contact lenses.

Sutureless corneal transplantation surgery is sufficiently challenging in and of itself, so any improvement in the technique that lowers the rate of reoperation because of a poorly positioned donor disc or disc detachment is worthy of discussion.

Tampa—Toric IOLs are a valuable tool in the cataract surgeon's armamentarium for correcting all levels of astigmatism, said James P. Gills Sr., MD, at the Current Concepts in Ophthalmology meeting.

Orlando—Treatment of unilateral congenital cataract with a posterior chamber (PC) IOL is 15% less expensive than treatment with aphakic contact lenses when estimating the cost of therapy for 2 years, according to a recent cost analysis.

Orlando—Photoscreening in younger elementary school children was more sensitive than patched surround HOTV acuity, according to a study conducted in a school setting among nearly 1,700 children.

Baltimore—Ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) chelation offers a low-tech, low-cost, effective treatment for calcific band keratopathy associated with chronic uveitis and other disorders, said James P. Dunn, MD, at the Current Concepts in Ophthalmology meeting, sponsored by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Ophthalmology Times.

VRT is based on the principle of neuroplasticity, in which the brain's self-repair capacity is activated.

Where can one preview the latest products from the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), get answers to specific coding questions, talk to Washington insiders about reimbursement, personalize patient-education DVDs, get a first look at the academy's new Maintenance of Certification (MOC) products, and learn the ins and outs of acquiring and installing an electronic medical records system? There's only one place and it happens only once a year—the annual meeting, where all these resources and much more can be found at the academy resource center and technology pavilion.

Montr?al—Physicians might have the ability to predict improvement in visual acuity (VA) in patients with diabetic macular edema (DME) who undergo treatment with intravitreal triamcinolone (Kenalog, Bristol-Myers Squibb).

Fort Lauderdale, FL—The thickness of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) is strongly associated with the preservation of the visual fields and less so with the final visual acuity in patients with Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy, reported one surgeon.

La Jolla, CA—A self-management program for elderly patients with advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD) has benefits lasting at least 6 months past the intervention, including improvements in mood and function and prevention of depression. The incidence of depression was significantly lower in the self-management group (p = 0.05) than in the control group at the 6-month follow-up, said Barbara L. Brody, MPH, director, Center for Community Ophthalmology, University of California, San Diego Shiley Eye Center.

The complement factor H gene was recently identified by four separate groups as associated with the risk of the development of AMD.

Montr?al—The exploratory phase II trial of pegaptanib sodium (Macugen, OSI/Eyetech Pharmaceuticals/Pfizer) for the treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME) showed that the drug is safe, effective, and well tolerated. The patients who received the 0.3-mg dose of pegaptanib sodium achieved a better visual acuity level than those who received sham treatment, and they had more of a reduction in the central retinal thickness.

Montr?al—The future of retina specialists relies heavily on the efforts of two important organizations—the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS), as both share a number of the same objectives, programs, and policies, David W. Parke II, MD, stated at the ASRS annual meeting here.

What began as a bit of an adventure for three ophthalmology residents holed up for the weekend shift at Charity Hospital in New Orleans turned into a nightmare in the days that followed Hurricane Katrina.

IntraLASIK as a one-step procedure is safe and effective for correction of ametropia after penetrating keratoplasty (PK), although the best refractive results may be achieved in eyes with only mild-to-moderate astigmatism, said Irina S. Barequet, MD, at the refractive surgery subspecialty day meeting sponsored by the International Society of Refractive Surgery of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.