Eye Capacity: clinical need should drive ophthalmic service provision

Almost two million people in the UK suffer sight loss, a number forecast to double over coming decades. Major causes of blindness are age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, cataract and uncorrected refractive error. Prevalence of these sight-threatening conditions...

Addressing medical risk factors for diabetes and understanding the new systemic treatments

As global diabetes figures continue to rise, the importance of reducing the burden of macrovascular and microvascular complications of diabetes has never been so great. By 2025 it is estimated that five million people in the UK will have diabetes...

An introduction to research governance

Research is the process of acquiring new generalisable knowledge and should be fully integrated into health care work. There is a growing drive to encourage and further develop evidence-based practice in ophthalmology so that staff and patients benefit from improved...

A day in the life of...an ophthalmic imager / an orthoptic assistant

The ophthalmic imager My role as an ophthalmic / medical photographer has evolved, dramatically, since I began my career at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, 30 years ago. Long gone are the days of developing and hand printing fluorescein angiograms in...

Myasthenia Gravis Masquerading as a Third Cranial Nerve Palsy

A 65-year-old man presented with a week’s history of binocular diplopia (in all directions of gaze) and a right partial ptosis. He was systemically well. His past medical history was unremarkable except for vitiligo. At presentation acuity was 6/6 bilaterally....

Warfarin Induced Suprachoroidal Haemorrhage Presenting as Acute Angle Closure Glaucoma

Spontaneous suprachoroidal haemorrhage is a rare but recognised entity. Anticoagulant therapy is a well known risk factor. We describe a case of warfarin induced suprachoroidal haemorrhage presenting as acute angle closure glaucoma in a patient with raised International Normalised Ratio...

Neovascular AMD: fresh recommendations underline standards of best practice

The management of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) has advanced dramatically over the past seven years, with the introduction of targeted new therapies that successfully maintain or improve vision in a majority of affected individuals. It’s a fast moving field,...

Psychiatric Consequences of Ophthalmic Disease

In part two of this series on ophthalmology and psychiatry, the authors will cover the possible psychiatric consequences of ophthalmic disease. The following conditions will be discussed: a. Black patch psychosis b. Psychological state in blindness c. Phobias in the...

Lothian Optometry Teach and Treat Clinic

The Lothian Optometry Teach and Treat (LOTT) Clinic is a supervised training clinic for community optometrists with an interest in managing patients with acute eye pathology, normally managed in the hospital setting. LOTT, which is the first clinic of its...

Urban Changes and Rural Struggles for Ophthalmology in China

China is by far the most populated country in the world, with over 1.3 billion inhabitants. It is also the country with the highest number of blind and visually impaired people. As a developing country, half of China’s population lives...

Nurse-led Rapid Corneal Collagen Cross-linking / UKISOP Society Education Day

Nurse-led Rapid Corneal Collagen Cross-linking By Dan Gore Over the last decade, clinical trial data has accumulated for new interventions in keratoconus that promise to arrest disease progression, significantly reduce transplantation rates and save many patients from long-term reliance on...