The Soviet Union still existed throughout my formative years, along with a vague undefinable miasma of possible war that generated films such as Red Dawn and Rocky IV. My favourite film from that era was called War Games, in which,...
Not long after securing my fellowship in London I was successful at interview for a consultant post at Singleton Hospital, Swansea. The interview took place before I had actually started in London and besides the basic things that are asked...
Rudyard Kipling was a very wise chap. He was in San Francisco towards the end of the 19th century and noticed that in some bars and saloons the house was giving away free lunches for every patron who first purchased...
Dr Rajan Sondh talks about medical electives and how he believes they are an opportunity to explore career interests, giving undergraduates an opportunity to develop skills in areas that they wouldn’t normally encounter on placements. Typically, electives are taken abroad,...
“Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all” – Helen Keller, deafblind American author, activist, and disability rights advocate I have always had a thirst for adventure, even if it has been predominantly from the comfort of my...
The Andean Medical Mission (AMM), founded in 2012, recently celebrated 12 years of dedicated service in the Bolivian Amazon, aiming to eliminate avoidable blindness. Over this period, AMM has successfully performed over 1700 surgeries, including for children with congenital or...
Indonesia’s population, the world’s fourth largest, is spread across 6,000 inhabited islands. Whilst some areas (e.g. Kalimantan, Papua) are relatively sparsely populated, Java is the world’s most densely populated island, with twice the population of the UK in half the...
In the UK, 100,000 new strokes occur each year, with 1.3 million stroke survivors [1]. This article will focus on post-stroke visual impairment, discussing topics of how common it is, how it can be detected, possible management options and how...
The steady erosion of undergraduate ophthalmology teaching, which has been acutely exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis, has led to a lack of basic ophthalmology examining skills and knowledge amongst clinicians of other specialities. Concurrently, there has been a rise in...
A round-up of the eye-related hot topics that have been trending on social media over the last few weeks. #BusyPhillips #photokeratitis #sunglasses Last time, we were in the throes of the Beast from the East. Here in the UK, it’s...
Poppers retinopathy is a relatively unknown phenomenon which afflicts users of poppers but should be considered as a differential in sudden-onset or sub-acute visual acuity loss – particularly in patients with a history of recreational drug use. Raising awareness of...
In this prospective, uncontrolled study euthyroid patients with moderate to severe inactive thyroid eye disease underwent colour Doppler imaging before and after orbital decompression. Patients with dysthyroid optic neuropathy, corneal breakdown, systemic disease (diabetes, cerebrovascular accident, cardiovascular and peripheral vascular...