Well today was the first day of the AUSCRS conference in Ayer’s rock. Disappointingly it is a small turnout, about 1/4 of last year’s. It is however made up for by the presence of Warren Hill, who I got to speak to quite a bit and pick his brain, and also Boris Malyugin of the Malyugin ring fame. The topics discussed where much the same as in previous years although each year the thinking is slightly different as people gather more experience with each topic. There was a very interesting segment in which a number of surgeons presented video of their surgery with commentary about why they did things the way that they did. There was also an interesting segment presented by Boris Malyugin on difficult surgery and how to deal with it.
Presbyopia
Sadly this subject has not changed much and in fact it looks like there is not much new coming up here in the foreseeable future. The discussion really boiled down to three main topics; monovision, multifocal implants and corneal approaches using laser techniques. INTRACOR got bad rap and looks like a likely dead duck and other laser approaches, to me seemed no different to previous years. I wold say that this approach did not really excite me or convince me to try them. Similarly, the KAMRA corneal inlay did not get a good showing and it looks like enthusiasm for it is rapidly waining. Multifocal intraocular lenses as usual had their proponents but again nothing really new here. Boris Malyugin did describe an experimental new lens without any diffraction pattern on it which instead worked on having polymers of varying refractive indices which might see the light of day (no pun intended). It however still works by dividing the available light into near and distance so it will still likely reduce contrast sensitivity. Graham Barrett again presented his argument for mono vision which I personally agree is still the best option.
Femto cataract surgery
This subject was only briefly discussed and I suspect will feature more heavily tomorrow
IOL calculations for cataract surgery
Warren Hill gave an excellent presentation on this subject which left me with the impression that there was new stuff coming in the near future. This subject is very important as the bane of the cataract surgeon’s life is the refractive surprise.
Looking forward to more good stuff tomorrow