Ophthalmology
Considerations in the management of retinal disorders
Vision research presentations and publications explore practice considerations in the management of AMD and diabetic retinopathy. Over the past two decades in Europe there has been a decreasing prevalence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and an improvement in visual acuity...
Should we move towards procedure-specific consent forms?
The consent process represents the patient’s acceptance of the information provided to them and an agreement to undergo an intervention as suggested by a health professional. Effective doctor-patient communication, ensuring the succinct delivery of the necessary points in a way...
Brexit, for richer, for poorer: prospects for post-withdrawal Britain
The people of the United Kingdom voted by 52% to 48% to leave the European Union (EU) in June 2016, a referendum decision intended by a slim majority to restore national self-determination and achieve what many believed to be a...
‘The Way Forward’ champions clinicians as architects of patient-centred service redesign
The demographic time bomb poses the dilemma of how more healthcare can be delivered to the UK’s ageing population without commensurate growth in resources. The Way Forward Project provides a robust resource for clinical centres to better identify and implement...
Do steroids prevent progression to proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR)?
There is continuing debate on the merits of pan-retinal photocoagulation (PRP) for severe pre-proliferative and proliferative DR versus the newer therapies that inhibit vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). This has been hotly debated [1] following the publication of findings from...
An update on inherited retinal disorders (part 2): Approaches to therapy for IRDs
Part 1 of this topic can be found here There are currently no proven cures for inherited retinal disease (IRD). However, multiple avenues of research are being investigated to better understand disease mechanisms and trial potential therapies that may slow...
25 years of OCT
David Huang first described optical coherence tomography (OCT) in 1991, in his seminal paper on the subject in Science. This method developed the work of others on ophthalmic interferometry, which essentially showed that measuring reflected light could be used to...
Sickle cell eye disease: an overview of vitreoretinal complications and their surgical management
Sickle cell disease is the most common genetic disorder worldwide and is associated with lifelong anaemia, intermittent pain and multi-organ morbidity. Ocular involvement can be associated with significant visual impairment due to the complications of proliferative sickle retinopathy (PSR). Occasionally...
What’s new in wet AMD papers?
Paper presentations on neovascular (‘wet’) age-related macular degeneration (AMD) from the 16th European Society of Retina Specialists Congress, Copenhagen, September 2016, outline recent research directions evaluating the impact of vision loss on key health domains, patient preferences in the process...
An update on inherited retinal disorders (part 1) – overview and assessment of inherited retinal disease
Part 2 of this topic can be found here Inherited Retinal Disease (IRD) is the leading cause of blindness certification in the working age population (age 16-64 years) in England and Wales and the second most common in childhood [1]....
More sensitive visual acuity test for age-related macular degeneration
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in the developed world. Primarily associated with ageing, genetic factors and lifestyle choices such as smoking also play a contributory role. Patients with early AMD, characterised by the development of...
Optical coherence tomography – reinventing the eye examination
It has been 25 years since Huang et al. presented the first optical coherence tomography (OCT) images in Science [1]. With vast improvements in OCT technology over the years, it is now possible to acquire high-resolution cross-sectional images of the...
