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I recently read a JAMA Ophthalmology article in which Drs. Hendrik Scholl and Caroline Klaver discuss pentosan and macular disease. Pentosan is a treatment for a chronic bladder condition called interstitial cystitis. The macula is the center portion of the retina. There seems to be an association between the use of pentosan and disease of…

Perhaps it is my bias being in the medical field, but I feel that there is a lot of information in the world about diabetic foot disease. I assume, based on this, that we are all familiar with the idea that decreased sensation in the foot can lead to non-healing wounds and other complications of…

It seems that many ophthalmologists have neck and back issues, as I have recently learned through the comments of my colleagues. A lot of this is tied to the use of an operating microscope for several hours on surgery day, especially when we can’t get our patients positioned quite right. Appropriate positioning of patients often…

When we remove cataracts, we replace the cataract with an intraocular lens implant. It has been well known for a couple of decades now that the calculation of the power of the lens implant is affected if the patient has had prior LASIK or other laser vision correction. What this means is that we might…

As frequent readers have heard from me ad nauseam, one of the key elements of cataract surgery is implantation of the intraocular lens implant. It not only makes the eye overall more stable, but it is necessary for all who don’t view “coke bottle glasses” as fashionable. Despite our personal preferences as ophthalmologists for our…

As the collective consciousness of the dreamy-eyed wanderers fantasizes about hurtling humans toward the red planet, we may need to think abiout things that are not necessarily addressed in books and films like The Martian. Spaceflight-Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (SANS) is an eye problem, or perhaps more correctly a constellation of eye problems, related to long…

If you are going to watch the Super Bowl tonight, you may well spot superstar pass rusher Von Miller. The Los Angeles Rams were already a team with a lot of pass rushing strength, and they brought in Von Miller during the season to bolster what was already an advantage. Miller has been very public…

An ophthalmologist made a keen observation that really resonates with me. He remarked about the recent increase in repurposing of medicines that have been used for a long time for glaucoma. In fact, some of the drops have been “used” for so long that they have been replaced by newer medications and are now rarely…

Most of the population is unfamiliar with the term “amblyopia,” and I can definitely see why; there is no obvious indication from the word to lead us to its definition, at least none that the world would be commonly familiar with. As a technical term, we ophthalmologists use amblyopia to mean a problem with vision…

Though this is not the first time I have had such a realization, learning new information can always be a humbling experience. I recently learned that having shingles on the skin around one’s eye can increase the risk of stroke. What’s even more curious and scary to me is that the average time from the…