Eyeworld

9 EW NEWS & OPINION A ttendees were abuzz with the latest ideas and technologies following the 2014 ASCRS•ASOA Symposium & Congress in Boston. However, it would be a whole year until attendees would gather again in San Diego—leaving a lot of room for all of that innovation to lose momentum. That's where Side X Side (SXS), formerly known as Winter Update, comes in. SXS is a new, data-driven educational program that will focus on incorpo- rating the latest ideas and technolo- gy into a successful practice. Created for anterior segment eye surgeons and busy ophthalmic practice administrators, SXS will be held February 12–15, at the Turnberry Isle Miami in Aventura, Fla. "Rather than just incremental, year-to-year improvements, the redesign of Winter Update has allowed us to make exponential enhancements to this meeting. We took the opportunity to analyze what was and was not working in order to create Side X Side," said Edward J. Holland, MD, SXS physicians' program co-chair. "The end result is a meeting that is modern, innovative, and collabo- rative. It is truly a place where ideas and implementation will intersect to help vastly improve patient care." Unlike other meetings, this new educational program is a real-world, step-by-step guide to implementing the latest and most exciting ideas in ophthalmology. Focused on the convergence of innovative ideas and day-to-day know-how, this program will provide attendees with in-depth knowledge and solid mastery of data-driven concepts. The meeting has 2 components, a physicians' program and a practice management program. The physicians' program is chaired by Dr. Holland, Stephen S. Lane, MD, and Roger D. Steinert, MD. Each year SXS will focus on 2 to 4 key innovations in the ophthal- mic practice, providing in-depth how-tos—from discussions with patients to preoperative screening and planning. Morning sessions will use a combination of didactic, case and small groups to delve into each topic. Afternoon workshops will provide hands-on or technology- specifi c education so that you can better assimilate the tools and tips provided. Sondra Hoffman, COE, CPC, CMPE, and Liz Parrott, COE, chair the practice management program. This program offers the opportuni- ty for practice administrators and their staff to have one-on-one time with experts in the fi eld of practice management. The faculty presenting this year includes Dianna E. Graves, BS Ed, COMT, Bruce Maller, Nancey K. McCann, John Riordan, and E. Ann Rose. This activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit. The practice management program qual- ifi es for COE Category A credits. All attendees seeking COE credits must be registered for the program. Attendees can enjoy summer savings registration discounts through September 21 at sidexside.ascrs.org/sidexside/ registration. Housing for Side X Side can be found at sidexside.ascrs.org/ sidexside/hoteltravel. EW Contact information Elliot: aelliott@ascrs.org Newly designed Side X Side meeting promises to be unique and innovative by Abbie B. Elliott ASCRS•ASOA Communications Manager September 2014 ASCRS update In the journal . . . Long-term follow-up of refractive lenticule Marcus Blum, MD, Andrea Flach, Kathleen S. Kunert, MD, Walter Sekundo, MD Just how safe and effective is femtosecond laser-assisted refractive lenticule extraction (ReLEx FLEx) in the long term? That's what investigators set out to determine in this 5-year follow-up of a prospective study, which considered how the fi rst patients to undergo the procedure ultimately fared. With the ReLEx FLEx technique, a 200-kHz VisuMax femtosecond laser system was used to simultaneously cut a fl ap and a lenticule of intrastromal corneal tissue in 108 eyes. In order to correct the patient's myopia or myopic astigmatism, investigators manually removed the lenticule and then replaced the fl ap. At the 5-year mark, 41 of these eyes were able to be reexamined. Investigators found that all were within 1 D of intended correction and 73% were within 0.5 D. While 1 eye lost 1 line of Snellen acuity, none lost 2 lines or more. In addition, they determined that mean regression was just 0.07 D. Investigators concluded that for correcting myopia or myopic astigmatism, ReLEx FLEx was safe and effective, with great long-term stability. Electronic reading desk in pseudophakic patients Nino Hirnschall, MD, Jasmin Katrin Motaabbed, Alois Dexl, MD, MSc, Guenther Grabner, MD, Oliver Findl, MD, MBA To determine how effective a new electronic reading desk (Salzburg Reading Desk Advanced) is, investigators conducted 2 studies. In the fi rst, they compared the new desk to conventional reading acuity measurements in 100 eyes of 50 pseudophakic patients. When they considered reading speed, they found that with the desk patients tackled a mean of 131 words per minute versus 134.9 for those using the traditional printed medium. With the desk the smallest possible print size was a mean of 1.95 mm compared with 2.02 mm for traditional print. Meanwhile, reading distance was a mean of 44.7 cm with the desk versus 39.6 cm with traditional testing. Investigators considered the differences in this fi rst study to be insignifi cant. For the second study, they considered the effect that varying contrast and luminance with the desk had on reading ability. Here 40 eyes of 20 pseudophakic patients were examined. Investigators found that when luminance and contrast were reduced, reading distance and speed remained about the same, but the ability to read small print decreased, as did overall reading acuity. The conclusion reached was that for clinical trials, standardizing such luminance and contrast settings would be useful. Investigators also determined that there was the opportunity to use measurements taken with the new desk or with printed charts interchangeably. Laboratory science: Accommodating lens refi lling, prevention of capsule opacifi cation Steven A. Koopmans, MD, PhD, Thom Terwee, MSc, Alex Hanssen, Heiner Martin, Dr-Ing, Soenke Langner, MD, Oliver Stachs, PhD, Theo G. van Kooten, PhD In this experimental study, the aim was to consider how different strategies fared in preventing capsule opacifi cation after accommodating lens refi lling. Investigators refi lled the capsular bags of 6 rhesus monkeys using several approaches. One technique was to fi rst treat the capsular bag with noncommercial sodium hyaluronate containing cytotoxic substances and then refi ll it with a silicone polymer. With this technique, however, all eyes developed capsule opacifi cation by the 40- to 50-week follow-up. Another approach was to treat the bag with actinomycin-D before refi lling it with sodium hyaluronate 1.0%. With this method investigators found that one monkey remained free of PCO. At the 3-month mark with this technique, a second monkey's lens capsule was clear. At that point, the sodium hyaluronate was removed and the bag refi lled instead with a silicone polymer. This eye subsequently developed PCO. When investigators considered all of these results, they determined that there was a statisti- cally signifi cant difference in the development of PCO when silicone was used to refi ll the bag as compared to sodium hyaluronate. Investigators noted that no PCO occurred when sodium hyaluronate was used to fi ll the bag. They concluded that to keep PCO at bay, the choice of lens-refi lling material plays an important role. September 2014

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