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Virtual COVID clinics

The clinics at Ystradgynlais Community Hospital are a little different of late. The nurses are still there, I still get tea with custard creams and the letters I dictate are still all written up by the next day. But there...

Zoom

One of the side-effects of the coronavirus pandemic is that suddenly everything is now done on Zoom. In case anyone is fortunate enough to have no idea what this is, Zoom is an app that allows virtual meetings to take...

Doctor by the sea (Pete’s Hidden Curriculum Part 1)

See Pete's Hidden Curriculum Part 2 here. “They can always hurt you more.” This is The Fat Man’s Law Number 8 from the book The House of God by Samuel Shem. For those that have not read this book, it...

Acute dellen formation post trauma

Corneal dellen are saucer-like thinnings, usually of the peripheral cornea [1]. Dellen formation is thought to be related to localised tear film instability [2], specifically the absence of the mucin component of the tear film. Without the mucin layer, dry...

Managing a patient with ptosis

A 50-year-old male patient is referred from the Accident & Emergency department with a history of ptosis. How will you manage this patient? Mr Bertie Fernando Clinical management Clinical management starts with a sound clinical history. Current history The history...

Does beauty truly lie in the eye of the beholder?

Simerdip Kaur takes a look at the latest ophthalmology-related news stories and asks which are based on facts and which are ‘fake news’. Headline: Does beauty truly lie in the eye of the beholder? Scleral whitening, iris colour-changing drops and...

The 2020 Milgram Experiment

Will ophthalmology recover from COVID-19? Learning Curve columnist Gwyn Samuel Williams shares his thoughts on the developing impact of the pandemic “It’s busy today,” the nurse in green chuckles. “There are six patients I think.” Six. This clinic is designed...

The ghost of Christmas present

“Ah, youth is wasted on the wrong people.” Some will recognise this as one of the many brilliant quotes from what is considered to be the best Christmas movie ever – Frank Capra’s tear-jerker It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), although...

Bilateral eye pain after contact lens wear: an inadvertent case of chemical eye injury

Introduction There are around 4.1 million contact lens wearers in the UK [1]. While the vast majority of them do not experience any complications, over the past years there have been cases of acanthamoeba keratitis and multiple retained contact lenses...