Eyeworld

Reporting from the 2017 American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) annual meeting, November 11–14, New Orleans EW MEETING REPORTER 90 December 2017 AMD in Florida had autologous stem cells injected into vitreous. These patients thought they were part of a clinical trial; a study was listed on ClinicalTrial.gov, but there was no IND and no FDA oversight. Patients described by Dr. Albini presented with symptoms including decreasing vision, angle closure, high IOP, crystalline lens sublux- ation, retinal detachment, and retinal hemorrhage. Patients in the case series, who ranged from 20/30 to 20/50 prior to the stem cell injections, were 20/200 to no light perception after the pro- cedures. The FDA issued a warning letter to the company and AAO issued a statement that all intrav- itreal stem cell therapies should be governed by the FDA. ClinicalTrials. gov now carries a disclaimer that its website provides an exhaustive list of clinical trials but this does not constitute approval from the FDA or National Institutes of Health. Editors' note: Dr. Albini has no finan- cial interests related to his presentation. Management of chronic and recurrent anterior segment disorders In a session co-sponsored by the Cornea Society, presenters discussed management of chronic and recur- rent anterior segment disorders. The session included the Castroviejo area of zonular dialysis. Dr. Miller also advised polishing the anterior capsule to reduce the odds of late pull on the zonules. Editors' note: Drs. Safran and Miller have financial interests related to their presentations. Kelman Lecture Alan Crandall, MD, Salt Lake City, delivered AAO's Kelman Lecture, paying homage to phacoemulsifica- tion's 50th anniversary and specif- ically discussing the "collision" of cataract and glaucoma surgery. Phacoemulsification itself has a significant IOP-lowering effect, and with the advent of MIGS, surgical glaucoma therapy is now often com- bined with cataract surgery, he said. In the future, Dr. Crandall said he thinks we will see an increase in high-tech as well as low-tech advances. An IOL adjustable in vivo with a femtosecond laser (Perfect Lens, Irvine, California), for ex- ample, is a high-tech option that Dr. Crandall predicted will soon be available, while the miLOOP (Iantech, Reno, Nevada), an FDA-ap- proved tool for manual cataract frag- mentation, is a low-tech example. Dr. Crandall described his pas- sion for global and local outreach, helping those in underserved com- munities receive surgical eyecare. "It's our feeling that no person with a blinding condition should be without hope, understanding, or treatment," he said. Editors' note: Dr. Crandall has no financial interests related to his presentation. Hot topics symposium Hot topics featured in a symposium included dropless cataract sur- gery and its impact on the retina, tocilizumab for giant cell arteritis, lower dose intravitreal bevacizumab for retinopathy of prematurity, and more. One presentation featured a small case series of patients who went blind after receiving unap- proved stem cell injections for ocu- lar conditions. Thomas Albini, MD, Miami, said several patients with Lecture, which was presented by Jonathan Lass, MD, Cleveland, and was titled "Advances with Random- ized Clinical Trials in Corneal Trans- plantation." Dr. Lass said that much of his work in clinical trials has been driven by a love for arts and music and admiring artists' dedication to their craft. Dr. Lass discussed specific ran- domized clinical trials, particularly the Collaborative Corneal Trans- plantation Studies (CCTS), the Cor- nea Donor Study (CDS), and Cornea Preservation Time Study (CPTS). He noted that randomized clinical trials remain the "gold standard" for eval- uating keratoplasty performance and can produce robust and high quality data to test a hypothesis. Editors' note: Dr. Lass has no financial interests related to his presentation. OSD treatment advancements Neurotrophic ocular pain is a hot topic in dry eye right now—so much so that it is discussed in the Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society Dry Eye Workshop II (DEWS II) reports published earlier this year, said Barbara Caffery, OD, Toronto, giving a presentation for Carolyn Begley, OD, Bloomington, Indiana, during "Ocular Surface Disease: What You May Be Missing." Howev- er, the percentage of dry eye patients who experience neurotrophic pain is unknown. Neurotrophic pain View videos from AAO 2017: EWrePlay.org Inder Paul Singh, MD, discusses results of a large retrospective study of YAG laser vitreolysis for floaters.

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