What is a Meibomian?

I often find myself talking to patients about little glands at the edge of the eyelid. Some of these glands are Meibomian glands, which produce an oily substance that helps with lubrication of the eye. These are some of the glands that can become blocked and lead to red inflamed bumps on the edge of…

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The Year of the Eyeball

It is January 19, and I realized that I never posted about the New Year! Happy New Year to everyone. Welcome to the year of the eyeball, 2020. Sometimes people tell me that they don’t know what is better vision when they hear vision measurements like 20/25 or 20/15. The second number represents the distance…

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Delaware eye care

Since I work in Delaware, I thought that the name Delaware Eye Care Center sounded like a pretty good one. Of course, I came to learn that there are a lot of ophthalmology clinics around here, all of which are basically rearrangements of the words “Delaware,” “Eye,” “Ophthalmology,” “Care,” “Consultants,” and “Associates.” How come nobody…

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Christmas in your eye!

Sometimes, the names of diseases are pretty interesting. One example of this is the “Christmas tree cataract.” It is called a “Christmas tree” because of many multicolored highly reflective spots seen in the cataract. It can be associated with a disease called myotonic dystrophy, but it doesn’t have to be. Anyway, Happy Holidays to all!

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Would you take the brown bath?

One of the most common ailments that we see in the ophthalmologist’s office is adenoviral conjunctivitis, which is a type of the common “pink eye.” Unfortunately, there is no traditional antiviral treatment for adenoviral infection. However, one of the treatments that seems to help to some degree is a rinse of betadine in the eye.…

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What is “Peeco”?

I once had a patient repeatedly ask about “peeco.” Initially, I did not understand what she was talking about, but then I realized that she was pronouncing the acronym “PCO.” PCO stands for Posterior Capsular Opacification. Well what the heck is that? When a cataract is removed surgically, we usually leave the capsule that contains…

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Are you a pilot?

It is my feeling that commercial airline pilots are a very special class of patients in the ophthalmology clinic. Due to the arrays of lights that they often are exposed to on instrument panels (sometimes otherwise in darkness as it is night outside), they have very unique glare issues that can affect them. The specific…

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Beware “Cell Therapy” Clinics

In the October 2019 edition of the journal Ophthalmology, RS Nirwan and others published a study about clinics offering “cell therapy” for various eye conditions including macular degeneration. The study cites that treatment at “cell therapy” clinics have resulted in severe ocular complications. The article points out that there is scientific potential for help with…

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Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

Recently, I was told about a 31 year old patient. He had some inability to move his eyes in certain directions, and the only other thing I was told was that the patient was on a particular medication. In the end, it turned out that his ailment had nothing to do with the medication. However,…

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Old dogs new tricks?

I have mentioned this innumerable times before, but cataract surgery is a great procedure as it is. Improving on something that is so good is difficult to do. However, since it is a very common procedure, we are still trying to do so. In spite of this, the better the procedure, the less likely I…

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