Confounding and reverse causation in observational ophthalmic epidemiology Traditional observational studies are inherently limited in establishing a causal effect of an exposure on an outcome of interest. One fundamental limitation is confounding, whereby causation is incorrectly attributed to a third...
Dry eye disease is a widespread ocular surface condition (prevalence 5.5-33.7%) that has been previously linked to systemic diseases, such as Sjogren, rheumatoid arthritis and more recently possibly also depression, in small population-based studies. The authors’ aim was to investigate...
Indonesia’s population, the world’s fourth largest, is spread across 6,000 inhabited islands. Whilst some areas (e.g. Kalimantan, Papua) are relatively sparsely populated, Java is the world’s most densely populated island, with twice the population of the UK in half the...
Fiona Anderson discusses the important role of community-based eyecare practitioners in meeting the visual needs of ageing patients. It has been well documented that today we live for longer. Statistics show in 1997, around one in every six people (15.9%)...
Detection If you screen for an intraocular tumour, dilate the pupil. If the patient is driving, use phenylephrine only. If the patient declines, document this in the casenotes. Don’t forget to look for sentinel vessels, which would indicate a ciliary...
My name is Rosalyn Painter and I work within the vision science and ophthalmic imaging team at Bristol Eye Hospital, where we cover all aspects of imaging within the hospital, including fluorescein angiograms, fundus photography, optical coherence tomography (OCT), slit-lamp...
Tourists often state with great jealousy how wonderfully green Ireland looks from the air. This wonder often fades when they land and realise just how much it must rain to achieve such vibrant colours! I experienced the reverse of this...
On the drive home, after a long day of eye screening patients in homeless shelters, I would pass through the boroughs, towns and villages of east London. Stopping at the soup kitchen, I would meet Christian with heavy cataracts, and...
Cerebral visual impairment is common in both adults and children, yet the diagnosis can easily be missed unless one is tuned into the presenting features. This article provides a succinct introduction to this important topic. What is vision? Vision is...
Diabetes – a historical perspective Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic disease caused by inherited and / or acquired deficiency in production of insulin by the pancreas, or by the ineffectiveness of the insulin produced. Such a deficiency results in...
A study of NHS practice demonstrated significant patient-reported quality-of-life improvements from commonly performed oculoplastic operations: entropion repair, ectropion repair, ptosis repair and dacrocystorhinostomy (DCR) [1]. In recent years, surgical and non-surgical approaches to functional and aesthetic oculoplastic surgery have advanced...