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Pituitary tumours: why are they so often missed?

Part 2: Clinical varieties, anatomical considerations and case report (see also Part 1 and Part 3) For ophthalmologists there are four types of pituitary tumour to be considered, three of which are named according to the hormone secreted, along with...

The International Council of Ophthalmology: what is it and is it useful for UK ophthalmologists?

ICO Director for Examinations and Assessments, Simon Keightley, explains the history and role of the organisation today, as well as outlining recent changes to the ICO examinations. The International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) is the only international medical specialty organisation...

Brain tumours in adults: the essentials for an ophthalmologist

The author provides a review of the common intracranial tumours in adults (other than pituitaries) which may present to an ophthalmologist. Primary malignant brain tumours comprise 3% of adult cancers but with an ageing population such tumours are becoming more...

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....

A missed intraocular telescope – an opportunity to re-focus the evidence

Intraocular telescopes allow magnification of the image so that it would be projected into a larger area of the macula, this makes the central defect caused by dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) smaller. The most common approach is a Galilean...

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...

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...

Headache: the clue is in the eyes

A worrying cause of headache is raised intracranial pressure (ICP). Papilloedema is a vital clue for accurate diagnosis and performing fundoscopy is essential in detecting this sign. The authors review the use of fundoscopy in their own district general hospital....

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...

An eye on novel anti-cancer agents: an evidence-based approach to external eye assessment

Novel anti-cancer therapies have led to significant advancement in cancer treatment, however, they can be associated with external eye complications. It is important to be mindful of such adverse effects during assessment of patients enrolled in clinical trials. Annually, approximately...

The clues of the eye – what is medical ophthalmology?

The author looks at the increasingly significant role of medical ophthalmologists and the importance of integrative healthcare. The eye is a remarkable organ, and for decades we have been discovering intimations of pathology existing elsewhere in the body [1] simply...