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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...

Aug/Sep 2014 Quiz 2

History A 27-year-old man presented to the emergency department with blurred vision and central scotoma in the right eye (RE) over the previous weeks. He had no relevant medical history and he was not on any current medication. However, he...

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...

What not to miss in neuro-ophthalmology Part 2

As mentioned previously there are several conditions in neuro-ophthalmology that should not be missed by the general ophthalmologist as well as ophthalmology trainees. We discussed in the first part some of these conditions including third cranial nerve palsies, giant cell...

Dark circles and facial rejuvenation

A 45-year-old socialite lady comes for cosmetic consultation and wants a remedy for dark circles and facial ageing. How do you manage this patient? Issues of dark circles and facial ageing should be addressed separately. Facial ageing should be considered...

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...

Cavernous sinus syndrome

Anatomically the cavernous sinus is a plexus of multiple veins that are connected and within this plexus there are several important vascular and neurological structures. These include cranial nerves III, IV, V1 (and sometimes V2), VI as well as the...

Supranuclear ocular motility disorders

Figure 1: Bilateral INO Introduction Complex ocular motility disorders are a diagnostic challenge. These patients come with very complex ocular motility presentations and require a careful and detailed assessment in order to find the correct diagnosis and arrange appropriate investigations....

Demyelinating optic neuropathy

Introduction Optic neuritis (ON) is an inflammatory process affecting the optic nerve. After glaucoma, it is the most common optic neuropathy affecting patients under the age of 50. The usual presentation of typical ON is unilateral subacute loss of vision...

Commonest mistakes during the refraction certificate exam

Ophthalmology specialty trainees are required to pass the refraction certificate exam within the first two years of training. If one passes this exam before entering a training programme, this can add two points to the portfolio during applications. In this...