US OPHTHALMIC REVIEW – VOLUME 12 – ISSUE 2 – FALL 2019

I am delighted to welcome you to the Fall edition of US Ophthalmic Review, packed full of topical articles that we hope you find useful and relevant to your day-to-day clinical practice. We would like to take the opportunity to invite colleagues in the field to contribute to our Spring 2020 edition. The journal accepts review articles, […]

Normal tension glaucoma (NTG), also known as normal pressure or low tension glaucoma, is characterized by damage to the optic nerve without raised intraocular pressure (IOP).1,2 For many years ophthalmologists have found the diagnosis of NTG challenging, but following the Collaborative Normal Tension Glaucoma Study, it is generally accepted that IOP reduction can prevent or slow […]

Approximately 50% of the population aged ≥60 years exhibit >1.0 diopter (D) of corneal astigmatism,1 and 15–29% have >1.5 D.2 If their astigmatism is not corrected at the time of cataract surgery, these patients will require spectacle correction postoperatively. Toric intraocular lenses (IOLs) have been developed to help these patients achieve postoperative spectacle independence. In order to […]

The health of the corneal endothelium, the innermost single cell layer of the cornea, is essential in maintaining corneal transparency. This is achieved through a passive diffusion of fluid across leaky inter-cellular tight junctions from the aqueous humor into the corneal stroma and active ionic pumps, which moves fluid against an osmotic gradient from the […]

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a technique involving the use of a photosensitizing agent that, when activated by light of a specific wavelength, causes localized and selective tissue damage.1,2 Initially developed to treat tumor cells using tumor-localizing photosensitizing agents (e.g., Photofrin®, Pinnacle Biologics, Chicago, IL USA),1 ophthalmic PDT was developed in the 1990s to treat conditions such as […]

The cost of glaucoma care is high1–3 and involves both the direct cost of eye consultations/examinations, investigations, medications or surgical interventions, as well as the indirect costs of loss of daily revenue during clinic visits, transport costs of self and care giver and the unquantifiable cost of psychological stress and blindness. These costs are recurrent […]

Optical lens filtration therapy began with FL-41 lenses that were developed in the late 1980s and first reported in 1991 by Wilkins and Wilkinson.1 They were originally designed to improve workplace productivity by reducing eye strain and headaches induced by fluorescent lighting. They were designed to allow only 10% light filtration from 400–550 nm with a […]

Introduction In the recently updated Dry Eye WorkShop DEWS II report, dry eye is defined as a multifactorial disease of the ocular surface characterized by loss of homeostasis of the tear film, accompanied by ocular symptoms, tear film instability, hyperosmolarity, ocular surface inflammation and damage, and neurosensory abnormalities.1 Chronic, T cell–mediated inflammation of the ocular surface […]

Infectious crystalline keratopathy (ICK) is an uncommon and indolent infection classically characterized by densely packed branching opacities in the absence of a robust inflammatory response. This infection is most often seen in the setting of prior corneal surgery, particularly penetrating keratoplasty.1 The risk for developing ICK in these cases is potentiated by chronic localized immunosuppression to […]

The Parkinson sign is classically described as a sixth nerve palsy and an ipsilateral Horner syndrome that localizes to the cavernous sinus. 1,2 The localizing value of any afferent and efferent (e.g., Horner syndrome) pupillary finding with an ipsilateral ocular motor cranial neuropathy merits revisiting the Parkinson sign.3,4 For example, a unilateral pupil-sparing cranial nerve III palsy with […]