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Pituitary tumours: why are they so often missed?

Part 3: Clinical features, assessment and management (see also Part 2, and Part 1) As previously mentioned in this treatise [1] pituitary tumours are common, occur in all age groups and can present with anything from minimal visual symptoms to...

Best way to detect glaucoma progression: by reflecting on the past 25 years

Glaucoma – a condition of optic neuropathy leading to progressive visual field loss often associated with raised intraocular pressure. It is fair to say that our definition for this condition has remained unchanged over the last 25 years and the...

A focus on Pakistan’s growing eye care needs: over 43 million patients treated for curable blindness free of charge

With 90% of the world’s visually impaired living in developing countries, Pakistan is no exception to this on-going global healthcare challenge. Despite massive leaps over the last few decades in targeting this issue, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that...

Things I’d tell my medical school self, had I known my first year on the job would be during a global pandemic

In a conversation with his younger self, a foundation doctor reflects on the contrast between his expectations of medicine at university and the reality of working during the coronavirus pandemic. Every doctor arrives at medical school with nervous anticipation, yet...

Towards virtual reality conferences?

COVID-19 is forcing us to reconsider every aspect of life. The authors ask what future ophthalmic meetings could look like. The coronavirus disease COVID-19 pandemic disrupted ophthalmic conferences resulting in the cancellation of the majority of meetings in 2020, e.g....

Novel changes during COVID-19 – transforming a walk-in Eye Casualty to a telephone triage service

With the current pandemic climate due to COVID-19, out of the norm approaches have been adopted in different hospitals across the UK to ensure patient safety. At our Eye Casualty (EC) department at Northampton General Hospital (NGH), we felt the...

The implementation of postoperative day 1 vitrectomy telephone follow-up consultations

In this pre-COVID-19 study, the authors argue that some follow-up consultations can be done by telephone without compromising patient safety. Thirty years ago, a study by Isernhagen et al. [1] found that 52% of patients required some form of unexpected...

Gemini Untwined: treating craniopagus conjoined twins

The authors discuss the successful separation of craniopagus conjoined twins at Great Ormond Street Hospital and the role of the ophthalmologist in such cases. Craniopagus conjoined twins are extraordinarily rare, occurring in only one in 2.5 million births and representing...

Visual disturbance heralding stroke: are we seeing the signs in time?

Isolated visual symptoms may be an early presenting feature of stroke, and timely recognition of such atypical cases is important because treatment for stroke has a limited time-window of efficacy. Stroke occurs in approximately 150,000 people per year in the...

My top five Apps for UK-based general ophthalmologists

The way we interact in society is changing as more of us are becoming ‘digital natives’: individuals who are in close contact to the internet and expect to integrate smart devices with our daily lives. This was stereotypically a term...

Dr William Mackenzie: a founding figure of modern ophthalmology

The author looks at the career of William Mackenzie and the important role he played in establishing the status of ophthalmology as a recognised medical speciality. There are certain individuals who, blessed with ability and means, are destined to leave...

Dementia and visual impairment: what is the relationship and are we providing the best care?

Carla Maden discusses the implications of living with both dementia and visual impairment, and how general medical junior doctors and ophthalmologists can help to alleviate this burden and improve the quality of life of such patients. Dementia and visual impairment...