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Jury duty

Until a few years ago doctors were exempt from jury duty. I am glad that this exemption was lifted as the stint I did at the crown court in Swansea recently was one of the most illuminating two weeks I...

The Irlen Experience

My father used to say that humanity is divided into those that see the world through a moral framework and recognise their place within it, and Tories. When a concerned mother came to the paediatric clinic bearing literature from the...

Is ophthalmology still a vocation?

People seem to be interested in medicine for different reasons. There does seem to be a spectrum in ophthalmology in which people range from ‘do it for the pay’ all the way to ‘do it for the patients’, with some...

The writing on the wall

The Prophet Daniel tells a famous tale of how the tyrannical king of Babylon held a feast for all his top lords and ladies, and as the feasting grew to fever pitch a mysterious hand appeared from nowhere that started...

Feb/Mar 2017 Quiz

History A 40-year-old male patient presented with a right lower eyelid swelling with gradual enlargement for two months. On examination there was a large lesion apparently involving lid margin, part of palpebral conjunctiva and skin. No other local or systemic...

Quiz Dec/Jan 2020

History A 69-year-old female patient was referred to the uveitis clinic from her local district general hospital with a left posterior uveitis which had been unresponsive to high dose steroids. She had no other previous ophthalmic history nor significant systems...

An ophthalmology elective in Kandy, Sri Lanka

On my first day at The Centre for Sight, Kandy General Hospital, I observed an enucleation. The surgeons worked with quiet precision, preserving the extraocular muscles for prosthesis placement. But when the time came, it became clear that the prosthesis...

A paediatric case of central retinal artery occlusion following antibiotics and decompression surgery for orbital cellulitis

Orbital cellulitis is an ophthalmic emergency that warrants urgent management in the hospital setting [1]. This occurs more frequently in the paediatric population where it is often secondary to sinus infections. Delay in treatment could result in severe complications including...

The power of the full blood count

Vishal Shah walks us through his thought process whilst highlighting the importance of routine investigations when dealing with unusual retinovascular presentations. Retinal changes can arise in anaemia, leukaemia, lymphoma, myeloproliferative and myelodysplastic syndrome. They are often the first manifestation of...