Armouries Drive,
Leeds
LS10 1LT
by Madiah Mahmood, Junior Medical Education Fellow, Bradford Teaching Hospitals and Foundation Trust, UK; Ewan McCallum, Consultant Ophthalmologist, Bradford Teaching Hospitals and Foundation Trust, UK.
The Yorkshire Retina Society is one of the largest regional subspecialty societies in the UK, delivering two meetings per year with high-quality presentations about new advances in retinal pathology and treatment and ongoing research.
This year the winter meeting was titled ‘Diagnosis, imaging and treatment of retinal disease’. The event took place on Tuesday 3 December 2024 at the prestigious national museum, The Royal Armouries in Leeds City Centre, hosted by Adil Ibrahim, Indra Dias and Sarah Mackenzie. The full-day meeting attracted 72 delegates and consisted of the following sessions:
- Session 1: Intravitreal therapy (IVT) + Genetics
- Session 2: Diabetes
- Session 3: IVT + inflammation
- Session 4: Cases
In session one, Mr McKibbin talked about sustainability in IVT clinics, and the exciting work being done at Leeds Teaching Hospital to reduce the carbon footprint within ophthalmology. Ms Downey explained the use of faricimab as IVT in nAMD and DME – the FARWIDE study found there was vision improvement in treatment-naïve eyes, and vision was maintained in treated patients, with the majority of these patients having received aflibercept. Mr Pearce demonstrated the use of ports as a delivery system for IVT and its upcoming uses. And Mr Heath discussed ‘Tales from a neuro-ophthalmology clinic – why examining the retina is important’.
Session two explored systemic treatment of diabetes with Dr Hammond, a consultant endocrinologist, and updated NICE guidelines on diabetic retinopathy by Ms Dinah. Ms Dinah explained how the new guidance acknowledged difference in retina measurements based on gender and ethnicity which could impact treatment choice of diabetic macular oedema – a common cause of diabetes induced sight loss.
Session three consisted of a presentation by Ms Sivaprasad on the ‘Eye-NEON’ study, which investigated the prevalence of subclinical non-exudative choroidal neovascularisation and its contribution to prediction of exudation in fellow eyes with unilateral exudative AMD. Mr Gale discussed effects on anti-VEGF treatment in intraocular inflammation.
The final session of the day consisted of trainee presentations and a talk by Mr Mukherjee on ophthalmic genetics for MR Teams. The winning trainee case presentation was an interesting patient-reported outcome study on ‘Local anaesthesia under sedation versus general anaesthesia for brachytherapy-treated patients with uveal melanoma’.
As a first-time attender to the meeting and a foundation doctor, the day was full of learning points, inspiring me to explore topics such as sustainability within ophthalmology and providing useful further insight into a career as an ophthalmologist.
The next meeting will be the summer meeting in 2025, although the date and venue is yet to be confirmed. It will be hosted by the Bradford Teaching Hospital’s Ophthalmology Team. To keep up to date with the details of this meeting, the Yorkshire Retina Society website states that you can email admin@yorkshireretinasociety.com to be added to the mailing list.
