Month: April 2014

From Ken Rudzinski, Five-Star Wealth Manager, comes valuable insights and practical, timely strategies on a wide range of financial planning topics, including investments, retirement, insurance, taxes and estate planning.It is not unusual for one or more IRAs to be the largest asset in a person’s retirement portfolio. Is this you? It is also commonplace for people to name a revocable trust as the primary beneficiary of the IRA. If this is you, then you need to make sure your trust is a properly-established “see-through” trust. Otherwise, you will be dooming (Read more...)

BOSTON — A phacoemulsification machine with active fluidics enabled surgeons to use high vacuum while reducing cumulative dissipated energy and lens removal time, a clinician told colleagues here. At the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery annual meeting, David Allen, FRCOphth, discussed a study of the Centurion Vision System (Alcon). “The problem with a traditional system is that if you’re going to use a high vacuum, you need to have a high bottle height,” Allen said.

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BOSTON — Small-incision lenticule extraction safely and predictably corrected vision in patients with spherical myopia, according to a study here. At the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery annual meeting, John F. Doane, MD, elucidated preliminary clinical trial results with the ReLEx femtosecond laser-assisted small-incision lenticule extraction (smile) procedure with the VisuMax femtosecond laser (Carl Zeiss Meditec). “It’s incredibly predictable,” Doane said.

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BOSTON — Despite diminished visual acuity immediately after surgery, intravitreal placement of combined triamcinolone acetonide and moxifloxacin proved effective in preventing inflammation and cystoid macular edema after cataract surgery, according to a study. Intravitreal delivery of the drug may be a viable alternative to eye drops, M. Stewart Galloway, MD, said at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery annual meeting. “We know that patient drop compliance is less than optimal.

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BOSTON — A hydrogel sealant prevented wound leaks after cataract surgery, according to a study presented here. At the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery annual meeting, Terry Kim, MD, discussed results of a multicenter randomized pivotal trial to evaluate ReSure Sealant (Ocular Therapeutix). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the sealant in January. “ReSure Sealant demonstrated not only non-inferiority but superiority in prevention of fluid egress from these wounds that had demonstrated wound leak and had very few adverse events,” Kim said.

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BOSTON — Warren E. Hill, MD, has a vision for improving accuracy of IOL power calculation through mathematical “brute force” and algorithmic finesse. Hill and an “algorithm dream team” have been working on a proof of concept project that moves beyond modern theoretical calculation formulas to predict IOL power with greater accuracy. The method relies on radial basis functions (RBFs) to replicate the nonlinear relationships inside the eye. For his innovative efforts, Hill was honored to give the Charles D. Kelman Innovator’s Lecture at the American Society of Cataract and (Read more...)

BOSTON — A short-pulse femtosecond laser was used to create free-floating capsulotomies with few complications, according to a study presented here. Y. Ralph Chu, MD, elucidated results obtained with the Victus femtosecond laser (Bausch + Lomb) at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery annual meeting. “We can successfully create free-floating capsulotomies with the Victus platform,” Chu said. “It did not seem to be associated with increased suction loss or difficulty docking.

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BOSTON — Symptoms alone are insufficient for an accurate diagnosis of dry eye disease, a speaker told colleagues at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery annual meeting here. “Dry eye disease is present in about half the population. It’s at least as common in the refractive and cataract populations as well,” Marguerite B. McDonald, MD, said. “Dry eye symptoms are present in half the normal patients who do not have dry eye and in only half the patients with significant dry eye. Symptoms alone cannot be used to (Read more...)

BOSTON — NSAIDs reduced cystoid macular edema more than steroids after cataract surgery, according to a study presented here. “We think that NSAIDS used routinely did better than guessing on the high-risk patients. Bromfenac alone may be equal or better than the steroid,” Keith Walter, MD, said at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting. “Generic drops may be less effective, but a more prospective judicial use would need to be done in order to elucidate this further.”

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Nanovision Group plans to start commercialization of its technology and product lines in Europe and Asia later this year, according to a news release. The company’s strategy was announced at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery annual meeting in Boston. The Russian-based company plans to market new-technology IOLs, refractive surgery equipment and the first independent network of eye banks in Eastern Europe.

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