EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
Issue link: https://digital.eyeworld.org/i/387844
57 EW CORNEA October 2014 and based on positive results with those patients, he started performing apical spots. "Many of these patients went from 20/800 uncorrected to 20/50 uncorrected in a day," he said. By the first month, patients have "much better" Snellen acuities, and by month 3 or so, vision has stabilized and spectacles can provide "greatly improved vision in many patients." Dr. Rubinfeld said surgeons can expect the refractive axis of astigma- tism to be around 90 degrees off the topography axis for about the first month postop after the sequential procedures, but then the refractive axis and topo axes begin to align. By 3 to 6 months, "most of the topog- raphy changes have regressed, but most of the vision and refractive improvements persist," which reinforces how little science actually knows about the disorder, he said. With some patients out to 1 year or more post-procedure, "the vision gain improvement has remained," Dr. Rubinfeld said. The group is continuing to refine the various protocols to determine the best patient parameters likely to benefit from the sequential proc - dures. "The results have been promis- ing with both uncorrected and best spectacle corrected visual acuities showing lasting improvements. We found a great potential for improving vision in patients with worse preoperative acuity," said Sirikishan Shetty, MD, senior oph- thalmology resident at Georgetown University Hospital and Washington Hospital Center. "We need to constantly rein- force to these patients that this is not LASIK," he said. "It's unlikely these patients will be spectacle-free as a result of these procedures, but the fact that many patients can drive and function again with glasses is very rewarding for the patients and surgeons." EW Editors' note: Dr. Rubinfeld has fina - cial interests with CXLUSA and CXL Ophthalmics (Encinitas, Calif.), as well as patents related to the proprietary technology used in the procedure. Dr. Shetty has no related financial interests. Contact information Rubinfeld: rsrubinfeld@gmail.com Putting quality, precision products into clinics and hospitals worldwide for over 30 years. www.tecfenmedical.com PRECISION OPHTHALMIC PRODUCTS Visit us at AAO Chicago -Booth 3053 (Under Dioptics) Osmolarity tests confir majority has elevated levels T he interim results from the U.K.'s National Health Service Dry Eye Disease (DED) Prevalence Study found elevated tear osmolarity levels in 72.3% of the 596 enrolled patients, indicating an abnormal and unstable tear film, earLab (San Diego) said in a news release. Three NHS ophthalmology consultants (Hillingdon Hospital, Middlesex; Great Western Hospital, Swindon, Wiltshire; and St. Peter's Hospital, Chertsey, Surrey) compared the efficacy of conventional d y eye tests (tear break-up, OSDI, meibomian gland dysfunction, and DEWS) to determine if osmolarity could improve the identification of DED patients better than conventional tests. With interim results completed this past June, the researchers found conventional dry eye tests do not correlate well with the presence of DED and that based on these tests, almost half of all cases may not be identified as having DED. Furthe , osmolarity has the highest agreement (78%) with the DEWS composite score. An elevated osmolarity measurement (326.8 mOsm/L average) was the only definitive sign in 20.1% of patients (120 indivi uals) who had significant symptoms but no other sign of d y eye. The ongoing study hopes to enroll a total of 1,000 patients and will add another site, TearLab said. EW