The ‘theatre of the mind’: Charles Bonnet Syndrome and Esme’s Umbrella

The founder of Esme’s Umbrella shares her experience with the poorly understood condition Charles Bonnet Syndrome and the creation of the campaign. Many years ago, when I was a young actress, I was in an American play called ‘Butterflies are...

Assessing everyday visual function in dry AMD – what matters to the person?

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the primary cause of blindness in the developed world and is accountable for more than one half of sight impairment registrations within England and Wales [1]. AMD is prevalent in people aged 60 years and...

A pituitary tumour from 1927

The author shares a clinical case from Edinburgh Royal Infirmary’s archives. It is not often in the course of a clinical career that one gets the opportunity to review a patient who had been treated by a pioneer neurosurgeon some...

Pituitary adenoma causing compression of the optic chiasm

A 21-year-old girl presented to her general practitioner (GP) with a three-month history of headaches, becoming more frequent and associated intermittent vomiting that did not improve with simple analgesics. There was a strong family history of migraines. She was initially...

Amnion-assisted conjunctival epithelial redirection (ACER): Enhancing stem cell transplantation treatment of total limbal stem cell deficiency

An exploration of Professor Harminder Dua’s recent work using a technique called amnion-assisted conjunctival epithelial redirection (ACER) to aid the success of conjunctival-limbal grafting procedures. ACER provides a refined way to use amniotic membrane (amnion), such as Omnigen® (NuVision® Biotherapies,...

Twenty-five years in retina

In the next of our articles celebrating 25 years of Eye News, the authors look at how the retina specialty has changed over this time and ask what the future might hold. Retinal disease management has benefited from great advances...

Childhood glaucoma

When a child is given a diagnosis of glaucoma, the impact upon that child and their family is enormous; equivalent to the diagnosis of a cancer [14]. This article outlines the knowledge, techniques and approaches that offer solutions to the...

Advances and developments in medical retina

The author provides an update on late breaking clinical trial results in neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and presentations on diabetes management from the American Academy of Ophthalmology Retina Subspecialty Day, held during the Academy’s annual meeting in Chicago, October...

Paediatric ptosis

Manoj Parulekar and colleagues provide a comprehensive overview of the diagnosis, assessment and management of childhood ptosis. Blepharoptosis (commonly referred to as ptosis – Greek, πτῶσις, ‘to fall’) is a condition where the upper eyelid is in an abnormally low...

Simulated intravitreal injection training – the way forward

Simulated surgical training is now recommended in the training curricula of all ophthalmologists in the United Kingdom [1]. Simulated training allows for familiarisation with a procedure, exercises the discipline of repetition, allows the resolution of technical difficulties and enables refinement...

Eye disease patients have more opportunity than ever to take part in NHS research studies

A new report highlights how 76% of UK hospitals now offer patients the opportunity to take part in studies of eye disease to improve research and innovation. ‘Ophthalmology research in the UK’s National Health Service: the structure and performance of...

Rare eye diseases: progress continues with authorised orphan medicines and breakthrough technologies

An update on the development of orphan medicines, recent regulatory treatment approvals for rare eye conditions and advances in retinal prosthetic technologies for blinding diseases. The prevalence of a rare disease is based usually on a range of estimates and...