Background Corneal opacity is the fifth leading cause of blindness worldwide¹. A common cause of corneal opacity is infectious keratitis. In developed countries, contact lenses are the leading cause of infectious keratitis while in developing countries it is from corneal trauma during agriculture work¹. The most common organism responsible...
Read moreClass Symposium 2020 is anticipated to be a milestone in digital education for the speciality contact lens industry. With an extensive programme spanning over 7 weeks, the event will deliver an array of lectures, workshops and seminars covering a range of topics, from myopia to ocular surface disease. Plus...
Read moreIntroduction The vast majority of the lenses we fit in contact lens practice are soft lenses. The amount of attention that goes into ‘fitting’ soft lenses is limited in contrast to the focus on scleral lens fitting, corneal lens fitting, and orthokeratology, for instance. This case shows how taking...
Read moreIn the second instalment of the Slit Lamp Leries, Martin Conway looks at Oblate Cornea. You can read the previous article which examined Demodex Mites here. This month’s image from Marco Tovaglia won the BCLA Diane Gould Photo Contest in 2021. It very clearly illustrates the flattening of the...
Read moreIn the October 2022 edition of Contact Lens Spectrum, Ed Bennett’s report on the GP and Custom Soft Annual Report 2022 provided a comprehensive insight into the prescribing habits of top US practitioners. Scanning the list of subscribers, they are mainly Key Opinion Leaders and researchers, so this may not necessarily...
Read moreI have no idea what LASIK (laser eye surgery) surgeons are thinking when they perform surgery on engineers with large pupils, let alone engineers with 10-mm pupils when dark adapted (Figure 1). Figure 1. 10-mm dark adapted pupil. Such an engineer sought out our office for a scleral fitting...
Read moreNever a dull moment in our industry. Although this past period will surely be remembered as ‘the COVID era’, there are so many new and exciting developments going on that maybe in the future, all of these technological advances may outweigh the negative vibes of COVID for our industry....
Read moreIntroduction Acanthamoeba is a free-living unicellular protozoon commonly found in fresh water and soil. The protozoa can be found in two forms: a metabolically active trophozoite and a resistant cyst. Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) is an infection primarily associated with soft contact lens wearers who demonstrate improper contact lens hygiene...
Read morePenetrating keratoplasty in patients with keratoconus may provide good long‐term visual rehabilitation. There is a relatively low rate of graft failure in this cohort of patients. Graft rejection has been reported to be 5.8–41% with most rejections occurring in the first 2 years. [1-5]. Irregular and high astigmatism may be common...
Read moreIntroduction Limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) results in dysfunction and/or loss of the stem cells in the basal limbal area. These cells are responsible for maintaining and replenishing the corneal epithelium. This change in corneal tissue composition results in conjunctival epithelial ingrowth, persistent epithelial defects, chronic inflammation, and neovascularization.1,5 There...
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