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Keratoconus and Pressure
In the July 2023 edition of the Journal Cornea, Dr. Daniela Knauf and colleagues published a study about measuring intraocular pressure in keratoconus. Keratoconus is a commonly encountered disease in a cornea practice. In this disease, the cornea stretches out into a cone shape, and the thickness of the central cornea decreases. This thinning out…
Read MoreOCT for Cataract Patients
In the July 2023 edition of the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, Bruno Boalento dos Santos and colleagues did a study that showed that OCT was an effective method for identifying macular diseases not detected clinically in cataract patients. What does that mean? Patients with cataracts have problems in the fronts of their eyes.…
Read MoreSpin that Lens!
One of the types of lenses that I put in after cataract surgery is a toric lens, which is an astigmatism-correcting lens. Astigmatism-correcting lenses only work if they are rotated into the correct position. Most lenses I put in are not toric, and they do not have to be rotated to exactly the correct places.…
Read MoreSometimes, it’s Weird
In the June 2023 edition of the journal Ophthalmology, Rajvi Mehta and colleagues published a study about diet and glaucoma. Their study placed patients in two groups: low-fat diet or usual diet. The outcome measure they looked at was incidence of open angle glaucoma (the more common from of glaucoma compared to closed angle glaucoma).…
Read MoreMythbusting
In the August 2023 edition of the journal Ophthlamology, Todd Margolis and Anat Galor authored an article about common myths in the field. The first myth that they describe has to do with Hutchinson’s sign in shingles. The bottom line is this: when there is a shingles rash over the upper face, eye involvement is…
Read MoreDementia and Glaucoma
In the July 2023 edition of the journal Ophthalmology, Do Young Park and colleagues published a study that indicated that patients who develop glaucoma are at higher risk for developing dementia. This goes along with a general idea in ophthalmology that poorer vision leads to numerous other poor health outcomes. This may be particularly true…
Read MoreDo I really need warm compresses?
Many patients go to see their eye doctors with ocular complaints such as burning, intermittent blurred vision, or tearing, and they are given a diagnosis of tear film dysfunction, which usually gets labeled as “dry eye.” The main treatment that they hear about and self-administer is lubrication via artificial tear eye drops. Artificial tears are…
Read MoreThe Use of Lasers in Cataract Surgery
In the July 2023 edition of the journal JAMA Ophthalmology, Antoine Benard and colleagues published a study regarding the cost effectiveness of cataract surgery done with the assistance of lasers. Cataract surgery is primarily done with ultrasound energy, but some surgeons incorporate the use of a laser in order to complete some of the preliminary…
Read MoreWhat is Restasis?
Restasis eye drops offer a solution for tear film dysfunction, which can have many symptoms including blurred vision and pain. Restasis contains cyclosporine, an anti-inflammatory medication used in organ transplant rejection. Unlike artificial tears, Restasis works at the source of the problem by targeting the inflammation that disrupts tear production. By reducing inflammation, the eye’s…
Read MoreSteep Corneas
The very front part of the eye, the cornea, has a rounded dome-like shape. The curvature of the dome, i.e. how steep the cornea is, varies among the population. Girish Valluru and colleagues published an article in the June 2023 edition of the Journal Cornea that tried to correlate different measures of the overall human…
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