‘Quality of vision’ in sharp focus as four Main Symposia frame XXI ESCRS Congress

The XXI Congress of the ESCRS is fast approaching. We will be meeting in the Bavarian capital of Munich in early September. You will find the preliminary programme and online hotel and conference registration resources at our web site www.escrs.org.

The four Main Symposia make up the heart of the conference. Each day you will be able to hear a panel of experts discussing a new topic: pseudoexfoliation, quality of vision after cataract and refractive surgery, the next generation of IOLs and hypermetropia.
In recent years the focus of research in both cataract and refractive surgery has shifted from quantitative to qualitative measures of postoperative visual outcome. The symposium on "Quality of Vision after Cataract and Refractive Surgery", held on Monday September 8th, is sure to be packed.

Ioannis Pallikaris MD, Professor of Ophthalmology, University of Crete School of Health, Greece will co-chair the session with incoming ESCRS President Marie-José Tassignon MD, Professor of Ophthalmology, University of Antwerp, Belgium.

The rise of wavefront sensing has brought with it a raft of new terminology from Zernike polynomials to root mean square and point spread function. US researcher David R Williams PhD, University of Rochester will elucidate the ins and outs of ocular aberrations from the clinical point of view.

Refractive surgeons have learned, sometimes the hard way, that pupil size is a key issue in determining the chances for success of refractive surgery. But what is the best way to measure the pupil under normal and scotopic conditions? Emanuel Rosen MD, Professor of Ophthalmology, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK will provide an update on the importance of pupillometry in refractive surgery.

Contrast sensitivity is now considered a key element in measuring the quality of vision after cataract and refractive surgery. It has become a major talking point in the design of the latest generation of IOLs. Vikentia Katsanevaki MD, University of Crete, Greece will discuss the evaluation of contrast sensitivity after cataract and refractive surgery.

Accommodative and multifocal IOLs are now being implanted in patients throughout Europe. However, questions remain on how much accommodation these lenses provide. Moreover, new refractive laser procedures aim to create multifocal vision. Dr Pallikaris himself will discuss current issues relating to measuring accommodation.

Customised ablation is fairly well established in the US and is gaining adherents in Europe. But just how good is the vision produced by the customised approach? Dan Durrie MD, Durrie Vision, Overland Park, Kansas, US will talk about the relative quality of vision provided by standard and customised ablation procedures.
The field of customised ablation continues to evolve rapidly, with new software and hardware coming along all the time. Michael Mrochen PhD, University of Zurich, Switzerland will explain what is happening in the field of customised ablation profile design.

Wavefront sensing provides unprecedented amounts of information about the aberrations of the eye. Yet there is little standardisation from one commercial system to the next. Jos Rozema PhD, University of Antwerp, Belgium will attempt to clarify exactly what these systems are measuring.

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