20th ESCRS WINTER MEETING POSTER COMPETITION

NEWS IN BRIEF

CATARACT POSTER WINNER

George Chatzilaou, Greece, took first prize in the Cataract Category of the Poster Awards at the Winter Meeting. His poster, “Nanosecond laser cataract surgery: contralateral endothelial cell study”, described a study involving 82 eyes of 41 patients who underwent standard coaxial ultrasound phacoemulsification in one eye and coaxial nanosecond-laser-assisted cataract surgery (NL) on the other.

The study showed that eyes which underwent nanosecond-laser-assisted cataract surgery with the new laser probe had less endothelial cell loss than those in the ultrasound phacoemulsification group. Preoperatively, the two groups had nearly identical endothelial cell counts, but by two years’ follow-up cell count was 2287 cells/mm2 in the ultrasound group, compared to 2420 cells/mm2 in the nanosecond-laser group.

The proportion of cells with a normal hexagonal shape was also higher in the laser probe group (43 per cent) than in the conventional ultrasound group (38 per cent).

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REFRACTIVE POSTER WINNER

First prize in the Refractive Category of the Poster Awards went to Aashish K Bansal, India, for “Post small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) interface fluid collection: a case of 'shifting ectasia'”.

The poster described the case of a patient who underwent SMILE for correction of compound myopic astigmatism in both eyes, but presented with decreased vision in his right eye two days postoperatively. Topography showed corneal steepening with an axis of astigmatism that kept on shifting on successive visits.

Anterior-segment optical coherence tomography revealed the presence of fluid in the interface. The patient responded to topical hypertonic saline drops and vision recovered to 6/6. Intraocular pressure remained normal throughout without the addition of any anti-glaucoma therapy.