Causes of congenital corneal opacities and their management in a tertiary care center.

PURPOSE: To evaluate causes and management of congenital corneal opacities (CCO) diagnosed in a tertiary care eye center and to compare the data with a previous study at the same institution. METHODS: Computerized medical records in all patients with congenital corneal opacities diagnosed in the Cornea Service at Wills Eye Hospital (Philadelphia, PA) between January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2015, were retrospectively reviewed. Children aged 12 years and younger at the first visit were included in the study. Patients\u27 demographics, ocular diagnosis, laterality, associated ocular abnormalities, other ocular surgery performed prior or subsequent to the first visit, and their treatment were extracted from the medical records. RESULTS: A total of 77 eyes in 56 patients were examined. The mean age at presentation was 32.8 ± 44.2 months, with the mean follow-up period of 26.7 ± 30.1 months. The most frequent diagnosis was Peters anomaly (53.2%), followed by limbal dermoid (13.0%), aniridia with glaucoma and microphthalmos (6.5%), sclerocornea and congenital glaucoma (5.2%), idiopathic (3.9%), Axenfeld-Rieger anomaly and Hurler syndrome (2.6%), and microcornea (1.3%). Primary keratoplasty was performed in 26 eyes, with the outcome rate in the clear cornea of 76.0% during the follow-up. CONCLUSION: Peters anomaly is the most common cause of congenital corneal opacities encountered at our institution. Penetrating keratoplasty is the most frequent choice of corneal surgery to treat congenital corneal opacities. Additional interventions during penetrating keratoplasty were moderately positively correlated with graft failure. This study also shows the rates of some etiologies of that changed over the recent decades in our tertiary care Cornea Service. Although Peters anomaly remains the most common presenting reason for congenital corneal opacities, its rate appears to be increasing over the recent decade. Congenital corneal opacities due to birth trauma, which is one of the preventable causes, were observed in a previous study in our clinic; however, no new cases were noted in this study

A comparison of two conjunctival rotation autograft techniques in primary pterygium surgery.

PURPOSE: To compare the effects of 90° and 180° conjunctival rotational autograft (CRA) techniques used in primary pterygium surgery. METHODS: Forty-five patients were included in this retrospective study. Visual acuity (VA), corneal topography, and auto-refractometer measurements, as well as detailed biomicroscopic examinations, were performed preoperatively and postoperatively. During surgery, the pterygium tissue was excised then rotated 90° in Group 1 and180° in Group 2, after which it was sutured to the bare sclera. Pterygium recurrence was defined as corneal invasion ≥1 mm. RESULTS: Group 1 consisted of 21 patients with a mean age of 45.1 ± 11.8 years, while Group 2 comprised 24 patients with a mean age of 47.9 ± 13.8 years. The pterygia in Group 1 were graded as more advanced than those in Group 2. A similar number of recurrences were observed in Group 1 (14.3%) and in Group 2 (16.7%). There was no statistically significant difference in terms of the preoperative and postoperative VA and astigmatism values between the two groups. There was a statistically significant improvement in the postoperative VA and astigmatism values in Group 1 and in the postoperative astigmatism values in Group 2. Although postoperative redness was more common in Group 1, no statistically significant difference was found between the groups. CONCLUSION: BothCRA techniques can be successful in patients for whom it is desirable to avoid a conjunctival autograft and for patients without high cosmetic expectations

Anterior Chamber Characteristics, Endothelial Parameters, and Corneal Densitometry After Descemet Stripping Automated Endothelial Keratoplasty in Patients With Fuchs Dystrophy

Purpose: To compare anterior segment parameters in patients with Fuchs endothelial dystrophy (FED) who underwent Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK) in one eye and no corneal surgery in the fellow eye. Methods: This prospective study was conducted on 28 eyes of 14 patients with FED who underwent DSAEK in one eye at least one year prior (DSAEK group) and no corneal surgery in the fellow eye (control group). Each eye was analyzed with the anterior segment optical coherence tomography, specular microscopy, and Scheimpflug imaging systems. Data were compared between the two groups. Results: The mean age of the patients was 76.9 ± 7.0 years. There were no statistically significant differences in the mean central corneal thickness (CCT), central anterior chamber depth, anterior chamber angle parameters, cylinder and keratometry values between two groups (all P-values > 0.05). The paracentral corneal thickness, corneal volume, endothelial cell density, and hexagonal cell ratio measurements were statistically significantly higher in the DSAEK group than the control (all P-values < 0.05), and anterior chamber volume in the DSAEK group was significantly less than the control (P = 0.046). While posterior and total corneal densitometry values in the DSAEK group were statistically significantly lower than the control (P < 0.001 and P = 0.011, respectively), there were no statistically significant differences in the anterior or middle corneal densities (P = 0.108 and P = 0.134, respectively). Conclusion: We found that total corneal densitometry value decreased in DSAEK group. Although DSAEK surgery did not affect the anterior chamber angle parameters, it reduced the anterior chamber volume and increased the corneal volume and paracentral corneal thickness due to the addition of the DSAEK graft

Does the novel coronavirus use the ocular surface as an entrance into the body or as an infection site?

This study attempts to review whether the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is transmitted through the ocular surface and examine the symptoms and signs of ocular disease. Considering that COVID-19 is transmitted by airborne droplets and close contact with infected individuals, we will also review the conditions to which eye clinics and ophthalmologists should pay attention to prevent the transmission of the disease. Although some researchers have argued that COVID-19 transmission cannot occur through the ocular surface, most of them are of the opinion that the ocular surface is a potential pathway of transmission. Until date, ocular signs and symptoms have been rarely reported in the COVID-19 patients. However, there are case reports of conjunctivitis as the first, and rarely, the only clinical symptom of the disease. In addition, low coronavirus RNA positivity can be detected in the ocular surface samples. Further laboratory and clinical investigations are needed to ascertain whether the ocular surface is one of the potential transmission pathways through which severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 can gain entry into the human body

Removal of Flanged Sutureless Scleral Fixated Intraocular Lens

Recently, sutureless scleral-fixated intraocular lens (SSF-IOL) techniques have become popular in clinical practice [1]. These methods are newer and have been developed to eliminate the suture-related complications of sutured scleral fixation methods [2-5]. These methods base on fixation of the IOL haptics within the sclera. The stability of IOLs is provided by the scar tissue that constitutes around the haptics [1]. Although there are some intraoperative and postoperative complications have been reported in the literature, short and moderate term results of these techniques are acceptable [2,3,6,7]. These complications generally are depended on types of SSF-IOL technique that are included hyphema, corneal edema, IOL dislocation, exposure of haptic, iris capture of IOL, break of IOL haptic, subconjunctival haptic, elevated intraocular pressure, hypotony, choroidal detachment, vitreous hemorrhage, and cystoids macular edema [1-8]. To our best knowledge, there is no article about removal of flanged sutureless scleral-fixated IOL in the literature.</p

New approach:removal of silicone oil and trocar assisted sutureless scleral fixated intraocular lens implantation at the same session

Letter to the edito

Case Report Eyelash in Pterygium and under Conjunctiva: Two Rare Cases

Abstract Two cases with an eyelash in pterygium and conjunctiva were presented in this work. A 76-year-old woman presented with bilateral ocular irritation, itching, and visual loss without any history of trauma or ocular surgery. On slit lamp examination, there was a pterygium closing the visual axis of the right eye. Careful slit lamp examination revealed also an eyelash in the pterygium in the right eye. A 36-year-old woman presented with complaints of redness, and itching in her right eye. She had undergone a penetrating keratoplasty on the right eye one year ago. On slit lamp examination, an eyelash was seen that had a 3 mm portion of it under the conjunctiva. The other portion of the eyelash was lying on the conjunctiva extending to the limbus. A broken lash may rarely be seen under conjunctiva or even the pterygium probably due to predisposing conjunctival disorders even without any history of trauma or surgery

Is it always blepharitis? Urbach-Wiethe syndrome (lipoid proteinosis)

ABSTRACT A 12-year-old girl presented with recurrent crusty debris and dandruff at the base of both eyelashes despite having completed different medical treatments. She had had a hoarse voice since her early childhood. Upon anterior segment examination of the eyes, we found yellow-white, bead-like papules on the margins of the eyelids. An otolaryngologist detected multiple nodules on the vocal cords and buccal mucosa. Ultrasonography revealed salivary stones in the main parotid ducts. And a dermatological examination revealed thickened skin lesions on the elbows and knees with a biopsy showing histopathological findings of lipoid proteinosis. We diagnosed the patients as having Urbach-Wiethe syndrome or lipoid proteinosis, a rare autosomal recessive multisystem disorder with variable manifestations vary that difficult the diagnosis. The ocular manifestations are not well known among ophthalmologists, but the typical lid lesions are pathognomonic and ophthalmologists should be aware of this presentation to identify patients with Urbach-Wiethe syndrome