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The 2020 Milgram Experiment

Will ophthalmology recover from COVID-19? Learning Curve columnist Gwyn Samuel Williams shares his thoughts on the developing impact of the pandemic “It’s busy today,” the nurse in green chuckles. “There are six patients I think.” Six. This clinic is designed...

Zoom

One of the side-effects of the coronavirus pandemic is that suddenly everything is now done on Zoom. In case anyone is fortunate enough to have no idea what this is, Zoom is an app that allows virtual meetings to take...

A glossary

After a week on call grading what feels like 13 billion referrals I decided it might be useful to come up with a glossary that might help other people in some way to decipher the true meaning behind every repetitive...

Interspecialty referrals

Referrals between the many and varied branches of ophthalmology sometimes underline how sub-specialised we have all become nowadays. The old era when everyone was an ophthalmic jack of all trades is gone, for better or for worse, and instead of...

Covidiot quiz

I like to read, but on account of the COVID-19 pandemic have probably read more over the past two years than ever before. One of the books that resonated the most was called The 900 Days and was about the...

Feb/Mar 2015 Quiz 1

A 79-year-old male presented to the ophthalmic emergency department with a three week history of left eye pain. He also reported visual deterioration in the left eye over the same period. He suffered from degenerative myopia, with his spectacle prescription...

What not to miss in neuro-ophthalmology Part 1

Neuro-ophthalmology is a complex and difficult subspecialty in ophthalmology. It has several connections to neurology, neuro-surgery, rheumatology as well as many other medical specialties. Working in an multidisciplinary team (MDT) environment is key to success in this subspecialty as mistakes...

Managing a patient with ptosis

A 50-year-old male patient is referred from the Accident & Emergency department with a history of ptosis. How will you manage this patient? Mr Bertie Fernando Clinical management Clinical management starts with a sound clinical history. Current history The history...

End stage glaucoma management

A 48-year-old female has had multiple drug treatment for glaucoma and is still losing field of vision. How do you manage this over time? This patient is at high-risk for going blind and should be managed aggressively to protect remaining...

The screening and treatment of retinopathy of prematurity

A male child is born at 31 weeks and requires 100% oxygen supplementation with intensive care. What would be the ophthalmic management of this child? In the first instance, it will be useful to know the screening criteria and protocol....

Non-organic visual loss

Patients can present to eye departments with various signs and symptoms (mostly symptoms) with no obvious organic cause. These patients can be labelled with any of a wide range of diagnoses such as functional visual loss, functional overlay, psychosomatic reaction...

It’s not always GCA

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is an immune mediated granulomatous inflammatory disease that affects muscular middle or large sized arteries. It is considered as a continuation of polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) when the severity of the disease has increased. It is the...