Oculoplastic publication trends in general ophthalmology journals

• AIM: To examine the publication trend of oculoplastic articles throughout the last decade in general ophthalmology journals. • METHODS: A review of all abstracts published between January 2010 to December 2019 in general, clinical ophthalmic journals was conducted. Articles that were categorized as original articles in general and clinical journals were included in the study. • RESULTS: Totally 10 281 abstracts were included. Of them 465 (4.5%) were oculoplastic publications. The mean number of annual-publications was 46.5 and the mean annual-rate of oculoplastic publications was 4.51%. A significant decreasing trend in the number of oculoplastic publication in the last decade was found (P<0.01, R2=0.770). However, there was no significant change in the annual-rate of oculoplastic publications during the last decade (P=0.191, R2=0.203). From the 465 oculoplastic articles: 179 (38.5%) were articles about eyelid diseases, 160 (34.40%) were about orbit diseases, 92 (19.80%) were about lacrimal diseases and 34 (7.30%) were about thyroid eye disease (TED). A significant decreasing trends in the number of orbital and eyelids publications were found (P<0.01, P<0.01). However, there were no significant changes in the annual-rate of orbital, eyelids, TED and lacrimal-diseases publications throughout the last decade. • CONCLUSION: Oculoplastic subspecialty deals with a wide range of pathologies in different ages. However, less than 5% of the articles in general, clinical, high impact factor ophthalmology journals are about oculoplastic diseases. One of the best way for ophthalmologists from different subspecilties, nowadays, to be updated, is to read high-impact-factor, general ophthalmology journals. Therefore, it is important that those journals will include articles about breakthroughs in oculoplastic

Publication trends in clinical ophthalmology journals in the last decade

Purpose: To examine the absolute number and the proportions of articles published in general high-ranked ophthalmology journals for each ophthalmic subspecialty during the last decade, and to examine the publishing trends over the study period. Methods: All original articles published between January 2010 and December 2019 in the selected general clinical ophthalmic journals were included in the study. All abstracts of original articles were reviewed and deemed to be related to 1 of the 11 ophthalmic subspecialties. Results: Six journals and 10,232 abstracts were reviewed. Articles focused on medical retina were the most common in the last decade (35.22%) while articles focused on strabismus were the least common (2.11%). The total number of articles published per year decreased during the last decade (p < 0.01). There was a significant reduction in the number of publications per year focused on anterior-chamber (p = 0.012), cataract and refractive-surgeries (p = 0.014), oculoplastic (p < 0.01), and strabismus (p = 0.011). In each year during the last decade, the highest proportion of publications was focused on medical retina while the lowest proportion of publications in most of the years was focused on strabismus. There was a significant decrease during the years in the proportion of articles focused on oculoplastic (p < 0.01). Conclusions: During the last decade, there have been differences in the proportion of publications of different ophthalmology subspecialties in high impact factor journals. This probably derives from demographic changes and advances in diagnosis and treatment. The proportion of articles focused on medical retina was the highest during all years while the proportion of articles focused on strabismus was consistently the lowest

Use of Superelastic Nitinol and Highly-Stretchable Latex to Develop a Tongue Prosthetic Assist Device and Facilitate Swallowing for Dysphagia Patients

We introduce a new tongue prosthetic assist device (TPAD), which shows the first prosthetic application for potential treatment of swallowing difficulty in dysphagia patients. The native tongue has a number of complex movements that are not feasible to mimic using a single mechanical prosthetic device. In order to overcome this challenge, our device has three key features, including (1) a superelastic nitinol structure that transfers the force produced by the jaws during chewing towards the palate, (2) angled composite tubes for guiding the nitinol strips smoothly during the motion, and (3) highly stretchable thin polymeric membrane as a covering sheet in order to secure the food and fluids on top of the TPAD for easy swallowing. A set of mechanical experiments has optimized the size and angle of the guiding tubes for the TPAD. The low-profile TPAD was successfully placed in a cadaver model and its mobility effectively provided a simplistic mimic of the native tongue elevation function by applying vertical chewing motions. This is the first demonstration of a new oral device powered by the jaw motions in order to create a bulge in the middle of the mouth mimicking native tongue behavior

Minimizing adjuvant treatment after transoral robotic surgery through surgical margin revision and exclusion of radiographic extracapsular extension: A Prospective observational cohort study.

We investigated in a prospective cohort of patients treated with trans-oral robotic surgery (TORS) for oropharyngeal cancer (OPC), who were selected for the absence of radiographic extra-capsular extension (ECS) and surgically revised for inadequate margins, the possibility of reducing adjuvant radiation (RT)/chemo-radiation therapy (CRT) without jeopardizing tumor control and functional outcome. We conducted a prospective observational cohort of patients treated with TORS for oropharyngeal cancer. Twenty-nine patients with T1/2N0 to N2B stage cancers were treated with TORS. Forty-five percent of them were treated for secondary primaries. Nine of 29 patients (31%) were revised for close/positive margins. Adjuvant RT was prescribed for 2 of 19 patients with early squamous cell carcinoma (SCCs) and CRT for 1 of 10 patients with advanced oropharyngeal SCCs. Overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS), and locoregional control at 2 years were 85%, 96%, and 93%, respectively. Posttreatment Functional Outcome Swallowing Scale (FOSS) scores worsened with prior or adjuvant RT, local recurrence, site, and revision for margins. Patients with early and moderately advanced oropharyngeal SCC selected for radiographic ECS and revised for inadequate margins have excellent tumor control and favorable functional recovery. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 39: 965-973, 2017