In the March 2023 edition of the journal Ophthalmology, Yohei Hashimoto and colleagues published a study about Covid-19 vaccination. They did a couple of different analyses, including a self-controlled case series analysis. In the self-controlled case series analysis, they found that there was no increased risk of ocular adverse events after vaccination. They did another…

In the March 2023 edition of the journal Cornea, Dr. Elena Franco and colleagues published a study about 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. This is a chromosomal deletion syndrome that they describe as having great “phenotypic variability,” which means that it causes a lot of different abnormalities which are inconsistent–that is, people with this chromosomal deletion don’t…

Recently, I’ve noticed a major uptick in the number of journals in the field of ophthalmology. When there are so many titles to read and digest, it certainly can feel overwhelming. Of course, not everything is related to my quotidian practice, but some of this information is really interesting anyway. I suppose the best thing…

Acanthamoeba organisms are literally amoebas that can cause corneal infections. One of the at-risk populations for these corneal infections are contact lens users. A study done by Dr. Nicole Carnt and colleagues regarding Acanthamoeba was published in the January 2023 edition of the Journal Ophthalmology. They identified several risk factors among contact lens users that…

If you’ve ever had betadine in your eye, you know that it can be a bit of a rough experience. Even after the betadine is washed out, there are often many hours of irritation that follow. So why do we ever use betadine in the eye? Application of betadine, which is used in the eye…

One component of a glasses prescription is the astigmatism. There is a lot more to astigmatism than how it manifests in a glasses prescription, but it is an informative simplification to think about it as part of the glasses prescription. The other major component of a glasses prescription is the degree of nearsightedness or farsightedness.…

It makes sense to me that hydration status is important to dry eye status. I often encourage patients to make sure that they are drinking water as part of a comprehensive approach to dry eye. As caffeine is a diuretic, its use doesn’t seem to be compatible with dry eye. In the February 2023 edition…

Well… it probably was never my record in the first place. Years ago, I had a patient who had seen three previous ophthalmologists for eye discharge. I saw her, and I made a startling discovery–she had 14 contact lenses on her eye! Whether this was a record or not is unclear at best. In the…

Keratoconus is a disease of the eye in which the cornea, the very front part of the eye, becomes misshapen. Specifically, the cornea becomes more and more cone-shaped. Dr. Tessnim Ahmad and colleagues published a study in the Journal Cornea in January 2023. Their study concerned correlates of progression of keratoconus. One of the findings…

Charles Bonnet syndrome is the term that is used to describe visual perceptions without physical substrate in the setting of poor ocular health. Basically, the eye that does not function well sends incomplete/inaccurate data to the brain, and the brain “conjures up” images by trying to create sensible images out of that imperfect data. In…