ESCRS NEWS

TBC Soosan Jacob

Published: Wednesday, March 30, 2016

WINTER MEETING SETS A RECORD

More than 2,200 delegates from 74 countries attended the 20th ESCRS Winter Meeting in Athens, Greece, a record attendance for any Winter Meeting.
At the Welcome Ceremony, ESCRS president David Spalton said the society was very pleased to return to Athens after successful meetings in 1999 and 2007, and to once again join colleagues from the Hellenic Society of Intraocular Implant and Refractive Surgery (HSIOIRS) for this important event.
“Greece is a special place for doctors because it is where the science of medicine first started over 2,500 years ago. Hippocrates (about 400BC), the father of medicine, based his practice on observation and scientific reasoning, leading him to be able to make a prognosis. His ethics of ‘first do no harm’ are still with us and underlie modern medicine,” said Prof Spalton.

The welcome from the local hosts was delivered by Spyros Georgaras, president of HSIOIRS. “For this meeting, we are proud to achieve such a large number of Greek papers, which defines the Greek tone of this event. Since the founding of our society 30 years ago, we have been working side-by-side with all the ESCRS board, more as close friends than colleagues,” said Prof Georgaras.
“We are very familiar with these ties, and we do not forget that ESCRS has been sending distinguished speakers to our conferences, as well as scientific and organisational material, enhancing the quality of our meetings and contributing to the training of Greek ophthalmologists,” added Prof Georgaras.

JOSé GÜELL AWARDED FYODOROV MEDAL
Prof Pandelis Papadopoulos presented the HSIOIRS Fyodorov Award to Dr José Güell at the Winter Meeting, which was held in conjunction with the 30th International Congress of the HSIOIRS in Athens. After the presentation, Dr Güell delivered the prestigious HSIOIRS Fyodorov Lecture on the topic of “Modern approach for keratoconus patients”.
The Board of Directors of HSIOIRS also awarded the Spyros Georgaras scholarship to Zisis Gatzioufas, Lampros Lamprogiannis and Dimitra Portaliou.
The scholarship was presented to the young ophthalmologists by Konstantina Koufala, president-elect of HSIOIRS, and Dimitris Kyroudis, general secretary of HSIOIRS.

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.

REFRACTIVE 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.

METHODICAL APPROACH

A methodical approach provides the smoothest path to successful cataract surgery, said Richard Packard FRCS, UK, who presented his most common tips for trainee cataract surgeons at the Young Ophthalmologists Programme of the 20th ESCRS Winter Meeting in Athens.

Dr Packard noted that he tells his students to regard their position as being at 12 o’clock on the eye’s meridians, when performing a capsulorhexis.

Creation of the rhexis begins with drawing a ‘C’ on the capsule with a cystotome, then grasping and pulling at each clock hour in a sequential manner to reduce the risk of a capsular tear. The flap created in this way will be twice the size of the original ‘C’, he said.