Changing the world

Michael Blumenthal Award Dr Hisaharu Suzuki, Japan, won the Michael Blumenthal Award for overall winner in the 2020 ESCRS video competition for his video "Hydrogen will change the world of ophthalmology". "I am very honored to receive this award. This grand prize has been a dream of mine," Dr Suzuki told EuroTimes after receiving his award. "We started investigation of free radicals in phacoemulsification nearly 20 years ago. In the studies, we proved that ultrasound-induced hydroxyl radicals actually damage the corneal endothelium. Hydrogen protects the corneal endothelium by selectively scavenging the hydroxyl radicals. Many previous reports, including clinical studies, have proven that hydrogen is harmless to the body, so we believe that it is safe to use in phacoemulsification. Research on hydrogen is one of the longstanding research topics at Nippon Medical School. Hydrogen has the potential to be applied not only to phacoemulsification but also to a variety of ocular diseases," he said. Dr Suzuki graduated from Nippon Medical School in 2001 and joined the Department of Ophthalmology. He received his PhD in 2009 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2016. He opened the private clinic “Zengyo Suzuki Eye Clinic” in 2018. He is currently a visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at Nippon Medical School. ESCRS Poster Award – Refractive First prize for Best Refractive Poster was awarded to Emilio Torres-Netto, Switzerland, for “Corneal cross-linking for treating infectious keratitis: final results of the prospective randomized controlled multicentre trial”. Dr Torres-Netto’s prospective, randomised phase III study set out to analyse the time to corneal epithelisation with photoactivated chromophore for infectious keratitis-corneal cross-linking (PACK-CXL) as a first-line treatment in early infectious corneal ulcers, and compare it to antimicrobial therapy. A total of 42 patients were included in the study; 23 in the medication group and 19 in the PACK-CXL group. Gram-positive cocci were the most commonly identified pathogens in the study. Cases of fungal infection were shown to have worse visual acuity both at presentation and at discharge. No significant differences in corneal re-epithelisation time were observed between the medication and PACK-CXL groups. Dr Torres-Netto, who works as part of the research group of Prof Farhad Hafezi from the ELZA Institute Dietikon (www.elza-institute.com), said he was “honoured and humbled” to win the Best Poster prize for the second year in a row. ESCRS Poster Award – Cataract Hélène Bailleul, France, won first prize for Best Cataract Poster “Rate of re-intervention in paediatric cataract surgery with ‘bag-in-the-lens’ fixation: ten years of experience”. Dr Bailleul’s retrospective study looked at the rate and reasons of secondary surgery in 76 paediatric patients implanted between 2009 and 2019 using Marie-José Tassignon’s bag-in-the-lens (BIL) technique.“The prevalence of posterior capsule opacification tends to be close to 0% if both the posterior and anterior capsulorhexis are well calibrated and if the BIL implant is well positioned in both capsules,” Dr Bailleul concluded. Dr Bailleul is a resident at the University Hospital, Caen, France. During her training, she spent six months in Paris at Rothschild Foundation specialising in cornea and cataract surgeries. “I was lucky to practise bag-in-the-lens cataract surgery in Caen thanks to Drs Billotte, Denion and Lux. Thus, I could export this knowledge in Paris. I also practise endothelial corneal graft. Being awarded this prize was an honour for me and recognition of the skills of my ward.” said Dr Bailleul. John Henahan Prize The winner of the 2020 John Henahan Prize was Dr Jennifer Kim, UK for her essay "Will Clinicians Be Replaced By A Robot To Perform Cataract Surgery?" Dr Kim studied medicine at Manchester Medical School, United Kingdom, and completed her training at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital. “Winning this prize has allowed me to connect with colleagues and the ophthalmic community worldwide during this difficult time,” said Dr Kim. “When working in a clinical environment we have to keep a poker face whilst carrying a huge amount of emotion, and this can be difficult to balance as a trainee. "Many of us are feeling additional stress from change in, or lack of, routine and overall uncertainty around COVID-19. Jotting down my thoughts regularly during this time has helped me to clear my mind and stay grounded. I would like to thank all the frontline healthcare workers in every corner of the world and also the ESCRS for giving me this prestigious award,” she said.

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