Indian Intra-ocular Implant and Refractive Surgery Convention highlights advances in ophthalmology

The Indian Intra-ocular Implant and Refractive Surgery Convention was held on the 9th and 10th of July 2012 at Chennai, India. About 1500 attendees had registered for this annual conference held on the second Saturday and Sunday of July every year. There were a host of international dignitaries which included Dr. Roger Steinert, Programme committee Chair of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery; Dr. Alaa el Danasoury, President of the International Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery; Dr. Ronald Kreuger from the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Helen Wu from USA; Dr. Anthony Aldave from the Jules Stein Eye Institute, Los Angeles; Dr. Thomas Oetting from Ohio, Dr. Peter Weiner from Gold Coast, Australia and so on. Under the leadership of the Scientific Committee Chairman, Prof. Amar Agarwal , the two day event combined the basic principles of quality teaching and fun learning. Various recent advances in ophthalmology were presented at this conference and amongst others these included the Glued Intra-ocular Lens – a technique for IOL implantation in eyes with insufficient anterior capsule, Femto Cataract Surgery – which utilizes the Femtosecond for easier, more rapid and safer cataract surgery and other important topics. The Live Surgery session featured various difficult and challenging cases operated on by authorities in their fields. Various tough cataract phacoemulsification, femto cataract surgery, glued IOL in case of absent capsular support, Intacs implantation and the Turnaround technique for false channel creation and the Boston Keratoprosthesis were demonstrated live to the audience. Interactive communication between the audience and the Surgeon enabled an extremely lively and interesting session. Amongst other sessions, the 'All is Well' session based on the use of Glued IOL technology in various different scenarios and as practiced by different Ophthalmologists from all over the world was shown. This session raised a lot of interest and was well attended. Another session with a jam packed hall was the Ophthalmic Premier League or the OPL. This is akin to the Indian Premier League in cricket or the European Premier League for football except that the participants here are 16 top international Ophthalmologists who compose four teams which vie against each other for the OPL trophy. Conducted by Prof. Amar Agarwal, this is a fun educational session with all the participants showing their most challenging or innovative cases while at the same time poking fun in a friendly manner at their opposing team members and their cases. The next IIRSI conference will be held on 7th and 8th July 2012 at Chennai, India. For more details visit www.eurotimesindia.org.