BOSTON — A tissue plasminogen activator and pneumatic displacement of submacular hemorrhage offered nearly a 90% success rate for patients in a poster presented at the American Society of Retina Specialists meeting. Colin S. Tan, MBBS, MMed (Ophth), FRCSEd (Ophth) , and colleagues presented the findings of 63 consecutive patients with submacular hemorrhage treated with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) at a single Singapore institute. Patients received an intravitreal injection of 0.05 mL tPA, followed by 0.3 mL perfluoropropane (C3F8) and strict positioning afterward.
Author: Healio ophthalmology
VIDEO: WIO brings women academics, private practice ophthalmologists together
SAN DIEGO ― At the Women in Ophthalmology Summer Symposium here, Lisa B. Arbisser, MD, discusses how the meeting creates a unique mix of residents, fellows, private practice and academics together to improve their surgical and leadership skills.
Older patients at higher risk for class 2 uveal melanoma tumors
BOSTON — Class 2 uveal melanoma tumors are associated with older age, tumor size, ciliary body involvement and exudative retinal detachment, according to a poster presented at the American Society of Retina Specialists meeting.Duncan Berry, MD, and colleagues presented the multi-institutional study, which consisted of 379 patients with posterior uveal melanoma treated with I-125 plaque brachytherapy. Patients had concurrent tumor biopsies submitted for gene expression profile, which classified 263 patients as having class 1 tumors and 113 as having class 2 tumors.
Shire applies for marketing authorization in Europe for lifitegrast
A marketing authorization application in the U.K. for lifitegrast for the treatment of dry eye disease has been validated, according to a Shire press release.If approved, lifitegrast would be the first LFA-1 antagonist to address signs and symptoms of …
Survey suggests partisanship doomed health care reform, public split on many ACA components
A greater Republican division on the issue of health care reform than originally thought in addition to the Democrats’ determination to not repeal the Affordable Care Act, led to the failure of health care reform efforts thus far, according to a special report recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine. “Fundamental divisions among Republicans point to an underlying reason why Republicans in Congress had such difficulty agreeing on a single repeal and replace plan. These divisions were not helped by the fact that President Donald Trump’s role in (Read more...)
VIDEO: WIO meeting welcomes medical students
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Real-world anti-VEGF injections produce slight decrease in IOP
BOSTON — A “significant but small decrease” in IOP was seen in patients receiving anti-VEGF injections, according to real-world analysis of IRIS Registry data presented in a poster here at the American Society of Retina Specialists meeting.However, while instances of clinically relevant IOP increase in these patients were “relatively rare,” repeated injections of Avastin (bevacizumab, Genentech) were seen to increase risk more than injections of Lucentis (ranibizumab, Genentech) or Eylea (aflibercept, Regeneron).
Vitrectomy yields more macular hole closures than Jetrea
BOSTON — Visual outcomes were similar in eyes with bilateral macular holes that underwent a vitrectomy or intravitreal ocriplasmin injection, but primary macular hole closure rates were higher in eyes that underwent a vitrectomy, according to a poster presented here at the American Society of Retina Specialists meeting. Verena R. Juncal, MD, and colleagues presented the findings of the Canadian study, a multicenter retrospective case series that included 22 eyes of 11 patients with bilateral macular holes. Patients underwent vitrectomy and internal limiting membrane peeling in one eye and 125 (Read more...)
Pneumatic retinopexy considered first-line treatment for primary rhegmatogenous retinal detachment
BOSTON — Pneumatic retinopexy as first-line treatment in patients with rhegmatogenous retinal detachment yielded better visual results and less morbidity than vitrectomy, according to 1-year results of the PIVOT trial.“Pneumatic retinopexy as per PIVOT trial criteria should be considered and offered to patients before vitrectomy in phakic and pseudophakic patients,” Rajeev H. Muni, MD, MSC, FRCS(C), said at the American Society of Retina Specialists meeting.
CNV reduced with ICON-1 treatment in phase 2 trial
BOSTON — Choroidal neovascularization was reduced at 6 months in patients with age-related macular degeneration who were treated with ICON-1, according to a study presented here at the American Society of Retina Specialists meeting. Christine R. Gonzales, MD, reported the results of the phase 2 EMERGE study of ICON-1 (Iconic Therapeutics), an anti-tissue factor immunoconjugate protein, being studied to determine its biological effect on choroidal neovascularization.
State access standards did not improve accessibility to specialists
The implementation of specialty access standards by state Medicaid agencies did not result in widespread, meaningful improvements in access to specialist physicians for Medicaid enrollees, and researchers suggest that additional interventions may be needed to expand access, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. “Medicaid recipients have consistently reported less timely access to physicians than patients with other forms of coverage,” Chima D. Ndumele, PhD, from the department of health policy and management at Yale School of Public Health, and colleagues wrote. “By 2018, state Medicaid agencies will (Read more...)
VIDEO: Dates announced for 2018 WIO Summer Symposium
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FDA moves slowly on required postapproval drug studies; other agency procedures scrutinized
More than 3 years passed before the efficacy of most drugs given accelerated approval by the FDA from 2009 to 2013 was validated, according to findings published in JAMA. A second study, also in JAMA, suggests that more than half of the changes made t…
Novel pan-VEGF inhibitor shows promise for treating AMD
BOSTON — A novel VEGF-C/D inhibitor showed preliminary evidence of clinical activity in patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration, according to a study presented here.“Current treatments target primarily VEGF-A; OPT-302 (Opthea) inhibits VEGF-C as well as VEGF-D,” Pravin U. Dugel, MD, said at the American Society of Retina Specialists meeting, where he gave phase 1/2a study results for the VEGF inhibitor.
TrueTear: The latest buzz
“It was a scratch, not a pick!”– Jerry Seinfeld
Thriving in today’s merger and acquisition environment
Many doctors ask me how the increased mergers and acquisitions activity by existing companies and emerging private equity and venture capital-backed entities will affect their business. As one of the initial employees at NovaMed, I spent more than 15 years in the first era of eye care consolidation. Almost two decades ago, eye care physician practice management companies such as PRG and Vision 21 were buying optometry and ophthalmology practices and ASCs. My role was acquisition of practices and ASCs, along with same-practice growth initiatives. I led the “development team,” (Read more...)
Surgeon describes sutureless technique for Ahmed glaucoma valve implantation
Traditionally, the Ahmed glaucoma valve is used in more complicated cases after other surgical measures have been tried. Increasingly, however, the Ahmed glaucoma valve is being considered as a primary treatment in patients with glaucoma, and surgeons …
Quiet eyes with failed PK can harbor asymptomatic infections
Epithelial defects in patients with failed penetrating keratoplasty may be a sign of asymptomatic infections, according to a study.In 53 repeat PK procedures performed at Villa Serena and Villa Igea private hospitals in Forli, Italy, researchers found …
Three rules for corneal phaco incisions
Over the last two decades, cataract surgery has evolved from scleral incisions to corneal incisions, from retrobulbar anesthesia to topical anesthesia, and from rigid IOLs to injectable IOLs. Currently, most surgeons use a corneal incision during catar…
Surgeons speculate about future of ophthalmic surgery
In the future, will ophthalmic surgeries be easier to perform than they are now? Intuitively, one might expect the answer to be an obvious “yes,” and superficially, some of the recent upgrades in our surgical equipment appear to confirm this impression. But surprisingly, ophthalmology’s historical trend appears to be in the opposite direction: In general, eye surgeries may be becoming more difficult.Consider, for example, cataract surgery. Initially, the operation consisted entirely of couching the lens into the back of the eye. Intracapsular extraction was the major successor, which was a (Read more...)