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Analysis of ‘urgent’ cataract referrals from community optometrists in the West of Scotland

As elective cataract services restart post-COVID, how do we establish which patients should be a priority? The authors share their findings from a review of ‘urgent’ referrals received by the ophthalmology department in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde. The COVID-19...

Ophthalmic Aid to Eastern Europe (OAEE)

Peter Cackett, Tim ffytche and Dr Irina Gout reflect on historic ophthalmic aid sent to Eastern Europe. This article was written prior to the horrific events in Ukraine. An appeal for funds and equipment may be made by OAEE later...

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...

Blame the lens – not its position – in refractive surprise

Aetiology of postoperative refractive surprise Weber coined the term “wrong eye, wrong intraocular lens, wrong patient” in 2008 as an aide memoir of major factors believed to underlie refractive surprise – defined as a significant unintended difference between dioptric refraction...

My Top Five: Foundation year 3 jobs for prospective ophthalmology candidates

Ophthalmology specialist training (OST) is a fantastic career option, however, it is also a highly competitive specialty. There was a gradual rise in competition ratios in recent years: 3.24 (2019), 5.73 (2020), and 6.80 (2021) [1]. Many choose to pursue...

Herpes zoster ophthalmicus: a clinician’s perspective

Introduction Herpes zoster, commonly known as shingles, is caused by the reactivation of varicella zoster virus (VZV). The term herpes is derived from a Greek work, herpein, which means ‘creeping’ and the word zoster means a belt or a girdle...

ChatGPT cannot pass FRCOphth examinations: implications for ophthalmology and large language model artificial intelligence

Large language models are generating a lot of hype for artificial intelligence, but can they assist patients and practitioners in ophthalmology? Introduction Deep learning (DL) has emerged in ophthalmology as an exciting form of artificial intelligence (AI) most commonly applied...

Congenital and paediatric cataract: Advances in diagnosis and management

Congenital and paediatric cataracts are relatively rare, although prevalence varies significantly between countries, influenced by factors such as nutrition, immunisation policy and population genetics [1]. In the UK, around 3–4 of every 10,000 babies are born with cataracts. It’s a...

Dropless cataract surgery

Dropless cataract surgery (DCS) describes the complete provision of anti-inflammatory and antibiotic prophylaxis intraoperatively. This eliminates the need for postoperative eyedrops to be self-administered by the patient and thus is also known as ‘dropless after cataract surgery’ (DACS) (n.b. this...

General purpose AI: Transitioning from high performance in highly curated settings to useful applications in ophthalmology

Artificial intelligence (AI) may be understood as the ability of machines to perform tasks which otherwise require human perception, reasoning, or learning. With the advent of deep learning, AI has achieved remarkable results across a wide range of medical tasks...