Author: Healio ophthalmology

Multifaceted dry eye disease defined in long-awaited TFOS DEWS II report

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Aptly published in the Dry Eye Awareness Month of July was the long-awaited Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society Dry Eye Workshop II report. Ten years have passed since the TFOS DEWS I report was published, and this new iteration discloses the results of years of intensive work by 150 experts from 23 countries, working in 12 subcommittees, who considered the wide-ranging, multiple aspects of dry eye disease.“Our objective was to achieve a global consensus concerning multiple aspects of dry eye disease,” David A. Sullivan, PhD, the workshop organizer, said. (Read more...)

Panel considers pathways to successful innovations in retina

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BOSTON — Taking a look at the market is the starting point when first evaluating the likelihood that an innovative idea can be a successfully developed opportunity, according to William J. Link, PhD, a panelist for the Innovation in Retina session at the annual meeting of the American Society of Retina Specialists.Link said he studies a number of factors when considering opportunities: What are the unmet needs? Will the technology make a difference? How does the caliber and integrity of the team fit? Is there a regulatory path? Does capital (Read more...)

Astigmatic effect from phaco incision placement

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Many patients desire a refractive correction at the same time as cataract surgery. This makes sense because we can correct a large degree of spherical refractive error as well as astigmatism with proper planning. The phaco incision that we use during cataract surgery can have a significant effect on the astigmatism of the eye, and it needs to be accounted for in our calculations.Many ophthalmologists split astigmatism patients into two primary groups: eyes that have with-the-rule (WTR) astigmatism and eyes that have against-the-rule (ATR) astigmatism (Figure 1). While a smaller (Read more...)

Annual review of anti-inflammatory medications

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For the past 2 years I have jokingly labeled this month’s column my annual lifitegrast edition. Now that Xiidra has been on the market for a year, it is time to evaluate it in the context of its competitors. As this part of our world matures and becomes less controversial and more a part of care standards, Xiidra becomes another tool in the anti-inflammatory kit. After a year in the game, we are getting to know Shire while also learning some new things about the established players Allergan and Bausch (Read more...)

Bariatric surgery improves retinal microvasculature in obesity

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Adults with obesity who underwent Roux-en-Y gastric bypass or sleeve gastrectomy exhibited improvements to the vascular structure of the retina in the 6 months after surgery, study data show.Retinal microvasculature changes reflect damage from obesity, hypertension, diabetes and other chronic diseases, and the effect of weight loss induced by bariatric surgery on eye health are relatively unknown, Robyn J. Tapp, PhD, head of the ocular epidemiology unit at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues wrote in an abstract presenting the findings. The researchers analyzed data from 22 adults with (Read more...)

Ophthalmic diffuse large B-cell lymphoma survival affected by different factors

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Several factors, including increased age and location, can influence overall survival rates in patients with ophthalmic diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, according to a study.Researchers evaluated the November 2016 submission of the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database for patients diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) from Jan. 1, 1973, to Dec. 31, 2014. The retrospective analysis included 396 patients and evaluated disease location, patient demographic characteristics and treatment modalities, and how these factors affected overall patient survival.

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ASCRS Foundation Chang Humanitarian Award to recognize charitable eye care

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The American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery Foundation has announced the creation of the ASCRS Foundation Chang Humanitarian Award, which will annually recognize an individual, team or organization doing charitable eye care focusing on cataract blindness, according to a press release.Endowed by David F. Chang, MD, and his wife, Victoria, the award includes a $50,000 prize that will be donated in the winner’s honor to a charitable organization working in humanitarian eye care, the release said.

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Novelion posts $21.4 million quarterly loss

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Novelion Therapeutics reported a GAAP net loss of $21.4 million in the second quarter of 2017 compared with a GAAP net loss of $5.1 million in the second quarter of 2016, according to a press release.Research and development costs were $10.8 million in 2017’s second quarter compared with $2.9 million in 2016, while total operating expenses increased from $7.4 million in the second quarter of 2016 to $38.4 million in the same period of 2017.

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ThromboGenics reports 15.2 million euro loss in first half

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ThromboGenics reported a net loss of 15.2 million euros, or 0.42 euros per share, in the first half of 2017 compared with a net loss of 15 million euros, or 0.42 euros per share, in the first half of 2016, according to a press release.Total revenues of 2.7 million euros were reported for the 6-month period, which included 1.9 million euros worth of product sales in the United States and 0.8 million euros in royalty income from U.S. sales of Jetrea (ocriplasmin). This compares with a net income of 4 (Read more...)