Therapeutic effects of hydrogen in eye disease wins video award

An overview of the exciting potential of hydrogen to revolutionise treatment of a range of ocular diseases by Hisaharu Suzuki, MD, Japan was the recipient of the Michael Blumenthal Award for overall winner in the 2020 ESCRS video competition. Entitled “Hydrogen will change the world of ophthalmology”, Dr Suzuki impressed judges with his research showing that hydrogen’s ability to selectively scavenge free radicals and in particular cytotoxic hydroxyl can improve outcomes in the treatment of retinal ischaemia as well as in cataract surgery. Dr Suzuki’s study examined the effect of hydrogen in an irrigation solution in an animal study and a clinical trial and demonstrated its usefulness as a new method for protecting corneal endothelium in phacoemulsification. Milan Izák MD from Slovakia received first prize in the Difficult and Special Cases category for a video which described lessons learned in the cataract surgery of a patient who had undergone radial keratotomy (RK). The winner in the educational category was Jiri Cendelin MD of the Czech Republic for “Small pupil cataract surgery”, looking at the pros and cons of various iris hooks and pupil expanders. In the historical category the winner was Csaba Juhász MD from Hungary for “A story of cocaine – And the fantabulous invention of one Karl Koller” while Gerd Auffarth MD from Germany took first prize in the innovative category for “CSI Heidelberg: DMEK with artificial implant instead of human tissue”. Jung Yeol Choi MD from South Korea was the winner in the scientific category for “Effect on corneal endothelial cell loss during phacoemulsification: novel thermosensitive hydrogels (Poloxamer) vs sodium hyaluronate”. The award for best video in the resident in training category went to Santiago Montolio Marzo MD from Spain for “Cataract surgery wetlab versus drylab training comparison”.

Tags: ESCRS Virtual Congress 2020