EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
Issue link: https://digital.eyeworld.org/i/153099
12 EW NEWS & OPINION August 2013 A fresh continued from page 9 tion because they're so active and also in women and men who are getting into their early 40s and starting to lose their reading vision," Dr. Koffler said. Dr. Herzberg said that he uses this treatment for a variety of patients, fitting a lot of patients for the lenses very young. "Today in a practice, you can do a number of different treatments with orthokeratology, many that have been documented in controlled studies, including myopia, astigmatism, hyperopia, presbyopia, and myopia control," he said. He also said that this type of treatment for myopia control could fit hand-in-hand with LASIK. For younger patients looking for myopia control, they can be treated with orthokeratology before they are eligible for LASIK. Later on, they may be a good candidate for LASIK or could use orthokeratology as a non-surgical alternative. Studies on orthokeratology There have been a number of studies on orthokeratology and these lenses, and statistically significant conclusions suggest that wearing them helps to slow myopia progression, as well as reduce axial length. These studies have been done in a variety of patient populations, comparing Current state of orthokeratology lland HollanRS HLollaSORS Holland d DA DA K S C I S DALK SCISSORS "I think it's important to understand that we are pro-ophthalmology, we're pro-optometry; orthokeratology is not selective to any one specialty or field," Dr. Herzberg said. He said there is still a lot of misinformation circulating about orthokeratology that creates a negative outlook for some, but practitioners who are familiar with the current studies and the safe, efficacious outcomes attained by the procedure are embracing the specialty in their practice. Dr. Koffler said one of the reasons that people are negative about the topic is because there have been past instances of infections. These problems were mostly related to compliance issues, such as people not using proper solutions to store the lenses, not washing their hands, and improper water supply. "Those issues have been addressed with more oversight by the government agencies to certify practitioners," he said. Now, before a company will allow access to their lenses, a practitioner must complete a certification course. "I personally have been doing corneal refractive therapy since 2002 and have never had an infection in my patient population," he said. Dr. Koffler said orthokeratology continues to come up and will be a topic of a refractive therapy symposium at next year's Contact Lens Association of Ophthalmologists meeting in Toronto. In addition, there are plans for two 90-minute symposia at the World Ophthalmology Congress in Tokyo next year. EW to safely excise stromal tissue This Vannas-style scissors na has straight "micro blades" micro blades mi m that are steeply angled ly to facilitate the dissection se of stromal tissue out to t the peripher y. The distal ta K4-5075 e tips of each blade are rounded and blunt to help protect underlying tissue while cutting. K4-2018 right K4-2019 left These arply cur ved scissors (right and left) fe y c feature miniature blades that eature ature Editors' note: Dr. Koffler has financial interests with Paragon Vision Science. Dr. Herzberg has no financial interests related to this article. closely match the ra e adius of the previously dissected peripheral rim. The re ssected ed inner blade has a blunt, horizontally-oriented, spatulated tip which keeps the spa scissors in the proper plane, minimizing inadver tent perforation. The delicate, Contact information shor tened, outer blade allows the surgeon to trim the tissue near the wall in a Herzberg: oaadoc@gmail.com Koffler: bkoffler@aol.com precise fashion. Watch it! Designed by Edward Holland, MD Cincinnati, Ohio the lenses to eyeglass use and other contact lenses. "As soon as the message gets across of what this is all about, I think we're going to see a whole different attitude," Dr. Herzberg said. "It's a great way to control myopia. It's a safe and efficacious way to control this kind of problem." He said that results have shown orthokeratology to be no less safe than daily soft contact lenses. ® 973-989-1600r800-225-1195 r www.katena.com -1600r