Archive for May 2022

Pilocarpine and retinal detachment

Today, I saw an entry in the American Journal of Ophthalmology. This is a report published by Dr. Hasenin Al-khersan and colleagues. The article describes two patients who had retinal detachments after use of pilocarpine 1.25% eye drops, which were started for presbyopia. Presbyopia, in basic terms, is the medical term for “needing reading glasses.”…

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Eye Protection

I’ve recently seen a number of patients who have had foreign bodies in their eyes. A foreign body is exactly what it sounds like–any object that is not really supposed to be in one’s eye that ends up there. Even the smallest of foreign bodies can cause a lot of irritation, and often they are…

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Scratchy Eyes and Meibomian Glands

Though I’ve covered this topic before, it is certainly an important one in ophthalmology. Most of the time, a feeling of “scratchy eyes” is caused by an inadequate tear film. The principal reason that one may have an inadequate tear film is due to improper tear film composition. In other words, it is more common…

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Hard Contact Lenses

You may be familiar with a particular type of contact lens that is smaller and more rigid than “typical” contact lenses. Those “typical” contact lenses that are the current market leaders are generally referred to as soft contact lenses. I, preferring simple nomenclature, call the other lenses hard contact lenses, though they can also be…

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Sleep Crust

When we are awake, the natural function of blinking moves the elements of the tear film, including mucus and debris, over the eye and into the punctum. Through the punctum, the tear film drains, and there is turnover of the liquid (and its contents) on the surface of the eye. When we are asleep, the…

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