Both intravitreal adalimumab and infliximab do not appear to benefit eyes with refractory diabetic macular edema. Intravitreal injections of infliximab may elicit a severe intraocular inflammatory reaction.

Keratoconus (KC) shows several distinctive features in clinical appearance, disease progression, and treatment in children compared with adults. Therefore, diagnostic, clinical care, and therapeutic approaches are different. However, pediatric keratoconus is often undiagnosed and thus untreated in many cases. Once diagnosis has been made, compliance with treatment recommendations is often poor. Pediatric keratoconus also tends to have more rapid progression than in adults; therefore, early detection and treatment are paramount to prevent serious vision impairment, which can affect the child’s development. This review of pediatric keratoconus discusses important issues such as worldwide epidemiology, clinical features in children compared to adults, and challenges in diagnosis and treatment and focuses on the most appropriate management strategies based on the best available current evidence.

We describe a novel surgical technique for pterygium removal taking advantage of the properties of amniotic membrane and limbal epithelial stem cells. A total of 10 eyes underwent pterygium excision with amniotic membrane coverage of the bare sclera and placement of pieces of limbal epithelium in a linear fashion in the affected limbal area covered by a second amniotic membrane using fibrin glue. After up to 8 months of follow-up, there were no signs of early recurrence or sight-threatening complications. The minor ipsilateral simple limbal epithelial transplantation technique for the treatment of pterygium requires less tissue than the conventional conjunctival autograft, leaving healthy conjunctiva if needed for another procedure in the future and offers the advantages of epithelial stem cells, which in the long term may reduce the rate of recurrence significantly.

No abstract

Inflammation is the major etiologic factor in the development of pseudophakic cystoid macular edema (CME). Several soluble mediators of inflammation such as tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of ocular inflammation. The purpose of this study is to report the short-term visual and anatomic outcomes following intravitreal injections of infliximab in eyes with refractory CME secondary to cataract surgery. An interventional, retrospective study of 7 eyes with refractory CME that were injected with 1 mg of infliximab. The main outcome measures were best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and central macular thickness (CMT) at 6-month follow-up. At the 6 month follow-up, BCVA improved from 1.14 ± 0.59 logMAR at baseline to 0.51 ± 0.35 logMAR (p = 0.0156). CMT also improved from 584 ± 159 μm at baseline to 327 ± 127 μm at 6 months (p = 0.0111). No systemic adverse events were reported in these patients. There was a single episode of uveitis that responded to topical steroids. Inhibition of TNF-α may be beneficial in the treatment of refractory pseudophakic CME.

Intravitreal infliximab and adalimumab do not appear to benefit eyes with CNV that responded suboptimally to anti-VEGF agents. Intravitreal injections of infliximab may elicit a severe intraocular inflammatory reaction.

To report on our initial experience screening for diabetic retinopathy (DR) using digital fundus photography and standarized criteria. Cross-sectional prospective study of all 1327 diabetic patients referred to the Ophthalmology Department of the Clorito Picado Clinic in San José, Costa Rica between April 2008 and March 2009. Patients were screened with a single-field 45-degree digital color retinal image centered on the fovea. The main outcome measures were prevalence of DR, waiting time for a fundus photograph appointment and the number of patients that needed to be evaluated by an ophthalmologist. In this population of 1327 patients, 85% did not have any retinopathy. The prevalence of DR was 15%. Mild non-proliferative DR (NPDR) was seen in 5.8% (70/1215), moderate NPDR in 3.9% (47/1215), severe NPDR in 4.7% (57/1215) and proliferative DR in 0.6% (8/1215). Macular edema was present in 2.6% (32) patients. 13.8% of patients required pupillary dilation for an adequate image to be taken and 8.8% of the images were unreadable. The average waiting time for a fundus photograph appointment was 49.1 days. A total of 13.8% (183/1327) patients were referred to the ophthalmologist. Of these referrals, 61.2% (112/183) were because of unreadable images and 38.8% (71/183) were referred for further ophthalmic treatment. Digital fundus photographic screening for DR appears to be a viable option for the improvement of screening for DR in Costa Rica.

No abstract