With UK optometrists purchasing OCT scanners at pace, early and asymptomatic epiretinal membrane (ERM) is increasingly referred into ophthalmology, as it is technically an abnormal finding. This retrospective study looked at just over 400 patients with ERM and analysed outcomes of those who underwent immediate surgery, compared to those who were observed. The study results… Read More

This large American claims database based retrospective cohort study examined over 23,000 patients receiving antiVEGF injections for diabetic macular swelling and reassuringly found no increased risk of stroke, heart attack or major bleeding events, when compared with patients receiving macular laser therapy for the same condition: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30292542/ However this study is based on US patients… Read More

This month, a review paper has been published in the European Journal of Ophthalmology authored by specialists at multiple central London teaching hospitals. This paper has systematically looked at the published evidence base to date for laser-assisted cataract surgery. Upon reviewing 121 suitable publications, the authors have concluded that “the current clinical outcomes of femtosecond… Read More

Earlier this year, a randomised controlled clinical trial was published from the group at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, directly comparing outcomes of conventional cataract surgery with laser-assisted cataract surgery. With 200 eyes in each trial group, the study found virtually no meaningful differences in outcome for the two groups in terms of level of… Read More

Here is an interesting write-up of a study from Israel that was presented at this year’s American Academy annual meeting. Of the 226 patients (mean age 73 years) referred, 40% of the OCT scans were classified as abnormal, with macular degeneration, epiretinal membrane, and vitreomacular traction all represented. Apparently, some 18 of these eyes had… Read More

Retinal specialists knew that this would be on the cards at some point, but managing proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) with regular intravitreal injections is not standard practice in the UK. This is perhaps due to cost, service pressures, or the fear of non-attendance or service-initiated re-schedulings causing re-proliferation at the retina and subsequent complications such… Read More