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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...

Ophthalmology in the developing world

After the second year of medical school, I spent my summer vacation working as a volunteer for a small Italian non-government organisation (NGO), named HEALTH-AID. As part of my volunteering experience, I joined a team of European doctors, medical students...

Post-stroke visual impairment: how big is the problem, how do we identify it, what we can do about it, and why does it matter?

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...

Retinal prosthetics: science fiction or a vision for the future?

“Is it a fact – or have I dreamt it – that, by means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great nerve, vibrating thousands of miles in a breathless point of time?” – Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House...

100 years of insulin

*Joint first authors The centenary of the discovery of insulin is a time to celebrate one of the most significant scientific discoveries of the 20th century. Background Before 1923, Type 1 diabetes mellitus [T1DM] resulted in death from severe ketoacidosis...

Specialty-driven EMR for paperless clinical environment – insights for an informed choice

Deployment of specialty-driven (or specialty-specific) electronic medical record (EMR) systems across UK ophthalmology units appears to be growing rapidly at the expense of generic, multiuse digital technology packages. Experience further suggests that open source systems can play a significant role...