I was recently reading a discussion board posting about laser peripheral iridotomy (PI) and cataract surgery as solutions for patients who have narrow angles. The angle of the eye is basically the space between the cornea (the very front of the eye) and the iris (the colored part of the eye). The angle is where…

One of the things that I had always been admonished about in residency was not using silicone containing lens implants in patients that might need retina surgery. When a cataract is removed, we usually replace the natural lens (which we call a cataract when it needs to be removed) with an artificial lens implant. Some…

I have previously asked the question, “Are stents for your heart or your eyes?” This was referring to a popular glaucoma microstent that is placed in the eye of glaucoma patients during their cataract surgery. That was using one type of stent that has been around for years. A stent that has been around for…

Recently I read an article by Hribar et al. in the journal Ophthalmology. It discussed clinic scheduling. One of the findings of the study was that double booking earlier in the day was a good strategy for clinic efficiency because it got the doctor going with seeing patients sooner. I have been pushing to have…

I have a patient who needs an iridodialysis repair after being hit in the eye. The natural response to this statement is, “what is an iridodialysis?” An iridodialysis is a tear of the iris, which is the colored part of the eye that we often call “brown” or “blue.” If the iris tear is located…

One of the great difficulties that we experience in ophthalmology practice is that of the patient who has been waiting a long time. This happened to me earlier this week when the office was a little short staffed, so there were too many patients scheduled in the same time slot. The patient and her family…

I recently read some blog posts that made me think about the philosophy of ophthalmology. When patients come to see me, I feel that it is my job to figure out if there is anything wrong with their eyes and address their complaints. However, there is a subtle nuance to this that I don’t usually…

Due to changes in regulations in health care over the last decade or so, most ophthalmology practices now operate using an electronic medical record (EMR). For practical reasons, a practice usually can’t employ its own IT department to help with the EMR. Often, the practice also doesn’t have its own servers to run the EMR.…

When I use the term “floater,” I am talking about a relative opacity in the vitreous cavity.  The vitreous cavity is the biggest part of the “inside” of the eyeball.  When people are young (e.g. most eight year olds), they have a formed vitreous “jelly” evenly filling that cavity.  Over time, the vitreous changes, and…

Lately, I have been hearing about certain medications, especially erythromycin ophthalmic ointment, being on “back order.”  I’m not 100% sure what that means, but I have done a little digging into this.  I am aware that there are some facilities that state that an item is on back order if their storage warehouse doesn’t currently…