ESCRS Academy visits Katowice

[caption id="attachment_12531" align="alignnone" width="1024"] 08.06.2018 - Katowice .
XLIX Zjazd Okulistow Polskich .[/caption] The ESCRS Academy in Katowice, Poland, took place on Saturday 8 June during the XLIX Congress of Polish Ophthalmologists. After an introduction by Prof Ewa Mrukwa-Kominek, six speakers presented on cataract surgery in glaucomatous eyes, corneal disease, diabetic patients, patients with loose zonules, previous refractive surgery and multifocal IOLs in co-existing ocular disease. Dr Sheng Lim gave a talk on optimising cataract surgery in patients with various types of glaucoma. He discussed different scenarios of patients with glaucoma and cataracts with their management algorithms. There was an excellent interactive discussion from the panel following his talk about lens-based surgery in narrow-angle glaucoma. After that Prof Thomas Kohnen gave a talk on the use of multifocal IOLs in patients with co-existing ocular disease. He touched upon various types of multifocal IOLs including extended depth-of-focus (EDOF) IOL use in patients with stable glaucoma, mild drusens, etc. This was a very good talk with interesting discussion from the panel. Prof Béatrice Cochener gave an excellent presentation on cataract surgery in patients with corneal disease. Her talk included managing patients with Fuchs’ endothelial dystrophy and keratoconus with cataracts. This was followed by a very insightful discussion from the panel. Dr Paul Rosen talked about cataract surgery in diabetic patients. His talk focused on the prevention of cystoid macular oedema and the use of co-existing medications such as intravitreal steroids, topical NSAIDs, etc for these patients. He gave a very good overview of the management and also touched upon the ESCRS PREMED study part II in relation to cataract surgery in diabetic patients. I presented on the topic of cataract surgery in eyes with loose zonules. This was a presentation of my surgical videos, giving examples of cases with loose zonules and its surgical management, giving tips for anticipation and prevention of potential complications. This was followed by a very interactive discussion on tips on surgical management in such cases from the panel. This was followed by Prof Roberto Bellucci’s talk on cataract surgery after previous refractive surgery. He discussed the dilemmas with biometry in such patients and the choice of appropriate IOLs. This was followed by a discussion on choices of IOLs (multifocal, including EDOF and monofocal) in such cases from the panel. I had the opportunity to meet ophthalmologists from Poland. The Polish Ophthalmological Society organised a fantastic annual dinner evening for us and for the delegates with a presentation of traditional Polish dance sequences. It was great to meet the members of the scientific and programme committee of the Polish Ophthalmological Society and we were very impressed with their hospitality all throughout the meeting. Mr Mayank A. Nanavaty, MBBS, DO, FRCOphth,Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon,Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.