Eyeworld

EW CORNEA 92 March 2015 corneal transplant that will likely last for [a] lifetime," he said. Several presentations will focus on this topic, including one on the evolution of the DALK standard technique. In this presentation, Luigi Fontana, MD, PhD, Reggio Emilia, Italy, will detail the evolu- tion from the Anwar technique to the cannula big bubble technique, highlighting functional results and long-term graft survival. The man- agement of complications will be discussed in another presentation, as will new frontiers for DALK. "The take-home message of this session will be the awareness of how the treatment of corneal ectatic diseases has changed," Dr. Sarnicola said. Until a few years ago, pene- trating keratoplasty (PK) was the only treatment available. "An early stage keratoconus may today be arrested in its development, thanks to the use of crosslinking," he said. Additionally, corneal rings are useful devices to treat mild keratoconus, and DALK is a safe keratoplasty tech- nique, with comparable or better results than PK. "Keratoconus therapeutic indi- cations have undefined and overlap- ping boundaries," Dr. Sarnicola said. "The quality of the speakers should help to make order on this matter, even if clear boundaries are an ambitious goal." He hopes this session at the World Cornea Congress will be able to convey to the audience the need to spread these new techniques around the world so that healthcare can be homogeneous. Donald Tan, MD, Singapore, will highlight "Corneal Tissue En- gineering, Physiology, and Wound Healing," with Shigeru Kinoshita, MD, PhD, Kyoto, Japan, giving the session's keynote lecture, "Future Directions in Corneal Endothelial Cell Biology." EW Editors' note: The physicians inter- viewed have no financial interests related to their comments. Contact information Colby: kacolby@meei.harvard.edu Nischal: nischalkk@upmc.edu Sarnicola: v.sarnicola@hotmail.it 'Keratoconus, Other Ectasias, DALK, and Other Lamellar Grafts Vincenzo Sarnicola, MD, Grosse- to, Italy, will moderate the session "Keratoconus, Other Ectasias, Deep Anterior Lamellar Keratoplasty, and Other Lamellar Grafts." "The World Cornea Congress session on keratoconus and other corneal ectasias will cover problems with keratoconus diagnosis and therapeutic indications," he said. Charles McGhee, PhD, FRCS, Auckland, New Zealand, will give the keynote address, "Treatment Paradigms in Keratoconus." Subjects to be discussed include keratoco- nus terminology and differential diagnosis, contact and scleral lenses in the management of keratoconus, crosslinking for corneal ectasia, and corneal implants for ectasia. "[A good amount of time] will be given to the surgical technique used to reconstruct a cornea irre- vocably damaged in its shape: the deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK)," Dr. Sarnicola said. The DALK technique is becoming the gold standard to treat ectatic diseas- es, he said. "The reduction of intraoperative and postoperative complications together with the highest long-term graft survival make DALK a safe technique, able to guarantee a Improve on a classic ? Meet Tono-Pen AVIA ® . Tono-Pen AVIA ® handheld tonometer is always ready-to-use and calibration-free. An award-winning ergonomic design, longer battery life, and statistical confidence indicator, make it the most advanced Tono-Pen ® yet. Tono-Pen AVIA builds on all the features that make the classic Tono-Pen ® XL the clinicians' choice for the past 30 years. Supported by hundreds of publications, Tono-Pen provides fast, accurate, and reliable IOP measurements that are less sensitive to corneal centration, can be taken in any position, and require minimal training. Tono-Pen, the one you trust in tonometry. ASCRS special show pricing available. Visit Reichert Technologies ® – Booth #717 © 2015 AMETEK, Inc. & Reichert, Inc. (3-2015) All rights reserved. www.reichert.com WCCVII sessions continued from page 91

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