Author: Healio ophthalmology

Trump administration committed to battling opioid crisis

Today in Bedminster, New Jersey, President Donald J. Trump held a “major briefing” with the HHS on the current opioid epidemic in the United States and the department’s strategy to fight it.During a separate press briefing, HHS Secretary Tom Price, MD, emphasized the president’s absolute commitment to “turning this tide in the right direction” and ensuring that the number of overdose deaths and individuals addicted to medication decrease.

Medical schools evolve to prepare for opioid crisis, still ‘a long way to go’

The Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis recently issued a recommendation to President Donald J. Trump to declare a national emergency to combat the growing opioid epidemic. “Your declaration would empower your cabinet to take bold steps and would force Congress to focus on funding,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and bipartisan committee members wrote. “It would also awaken every American to this simple fact: if this scourge has not found you or your family yet, without bold action by everyone, it soon will.”

Swept-source OCT protocol may limit prone position time after macular hole surgery

A swept-source OCT imaging protocol helped reduce the prone position time of patients undergoing vitrectomy without reopening the macular hole, according to a study.Compared with conventional fundus examinations by indirect ophthalmoscopy, patients imaged with SS-OCT experienced statistically significantly less time in the prone position before macular hole closure. Researchers studied 129 eyes of 125 consecutive patients with macular hole who had undergone vitrectomy. The prone position was halted by a surgeon’s decision in 69 eyes of 66 patients in the conventional group, while it was halted after SS-OCT detected closure (Read more...)

PUBLICATION EXCLUSIVE: Visualization during surgery continues to evolve

Intraoperative OCT is showing promise as a useful adjunct, especially in vitrectomy and lamellar keratoplasty. However, indications are limited, as vitrectomy only represents about 2% of ophthalmic surgical procedures in the U.S., or about 250,000 procedures per year. Endothelial and lamellar anterior keratoplasty represent only 0.25% of procedures, or about 30,000 per year.In vitrectomy, early adopter surgeons are finding intraoperative OCT helpful when peeling epiretinal membranes and treating other vitreoretinal interface pathologies. Intraoperative OCT can help differentiate retinoschisis from retinal detachment. It is also potentially helpful in select surgical procedures (Read more...)