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August 2003
IN THIS ISSUE

Verteporfin’s efficacy in AMD comes into focus

Symposium to explore hyperopia treatment options
Epikeratophakia for keratoconus gets a second look
AMD UPDATE
Cancer trials give anti-angiogenesis a boost
RhuFab V2 trials show positive results in AMD
PDT trials aim to refine AMD treatment indications
Studies shed light on lutein’s importance to vision
Watchful eye and good use of preventive strategies needed to limit risk of phaco burn
Prolate lens design improves contrast sensitvity
German ophthalmologists prefer acrylic IOLs despite wider range of PMMA implants available
Square-edged IOL tackles PCO problems
New IOL injector yields optimum implantation with reduced learning curve
New anterior chamber phakic IOL shows good longterm safety and predictability in high myopia
Topographically guided LASIK proves first line treatment for decentred ablations
Customised ablation research produces
some answers but raises even more questions
Phakic IOL may help in refractory amblyopia
Customised approach useful in resolving
decentred ablations after LASIK and PRK
Screening can prevent post-op binocular disturbances
Anticonvulsant joins list of agents implicated in acute angle-closure glaucoma
New study shows surprise link between
hyperglycaemia and retinopathy of prematurity
Waiting lists put melanoma patients at risk
Tropicamide has little impact on higher order aberrations in myopes undergoing wavefront analysis
Swedish team tackle Moken mystery
FEATURES
From The Editor
Reflections on Refractive Surgery
Bio-Ophthalmology
Bio-ophthalmology
Eye On Travel
Regulatory Matters


From The Editors: By Clive Peckar FRCS, FRCOphth

Readers of last months’ Editorial by Paul Rosen, will be pleased to hear that after his mother wrote to her Member of Parliament, complaining about distorted Government priorities, she commenced her radiotherapy within a week. Bristol Eye Hospital, in Southern England, has just produced a report showing that in order to meet Government targets for new outpatient appointments, it has been necessary to ‘cancel and delay more than 1,000 follow-up appointments per month resulting in a number of patients irreversibly losing sight, mainly from glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy’.

The UK Government’s Public Administration Committee called for a reform of public service targets. It warns the quality of public services are now under threat as professionals are put under pressure to meet national objectives. ‘Professionals are putting target setting before patients’ health’. We all applaud the UK Government’s initiative in bringing waiting lists for cataract surgery down to three months by the end of 2004. In order to achieve this it has set up new regional Strategic Health Authorities to collect bids for providing competitive healthcare (including bids from surgeons elsewhere in the EU) by sending patients to high throughput cataract and hip factories.

In many cases these involve a longer journey for patients. In championing this action the Government are also promoting the concept of ‘patient choice: of hospital and surgeon’!

Some cynics, however, are suggesting that the shortening of the timetable to re-modernise the National Health Service (NHS) is timed to precede the British General Election in two years time. Let us hope that the Government are really trying to permanently modernise the whole of the NHS and not merely produce a cut-price model for re-election.

In the meantime, as several EU countries are now adopting policies of reducing waiting lists by sending their patients to other countries, health issues are becoming increasingly international. As a publication of the ESCRS, an international organisation, Eurotimes is eager to hear from readers throughout Europe regarding these matters in the hope of generating a wider debate.

CLIVE PECKAR

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