Chemical injuries frequently result in vision loss, disfigurement, and challenging ocular surface complications. Acute interventions are directed at decreasing the extent of the injury, suppressing inflammation, and promoting ocular surface re-epithelialization. Chronically, management involves controlling inflammation along with rehabilitation and reconstruction of the ocular surface. Future therapies aimed at inhibiting neovascularization and promoting ocular surface regeneration should provide more effective treatment options for the management of ocular chemical injuries.

This study anonymously screened 13,332 individuals worldwide for psychological symptoms related to Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic from March 29 th to April 14 th , 2020. A total of n=12,817 responses were considered valid with responses from 12 featured countries and five WHO regions. Female gender, pre-existing psychiatric condition, and prior exposure to trauma were identified as notable risk factors, whereas optimism, ability to share concerns with family and friends like usual, positive prediction about COVID-19, and daily exercise predicted fewer psychological symptoms. These results could aid in dynamic optimization of mental health services during and following COVID-19 pandemic.

During the current global public health emergency caused by novel coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), researchers and medical experts started working day and night to search for new technologies to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent studies have shown that artificial intelligence (AI) has been successfully employed in the health sector for various healthcare procedures. This study comprehensively reviewed the research and development on state-of-the-art applications of artificial intelligence for combating the COVID-19 pandemic. In the process of literature retrieval, the relevant literature from citation databases including ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and Preprints from arXiv, medRxiv, and bioRxiv was selected. Recent advances in the field of AI-based technologies are critically reviewed and summarized. Various challenges associated with the use of these technologies are highlighted and based on updated studies and critical analysis, research gaps and future recommendations are identified and discussed. The comparison between various machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) methods, the dominant AI-based technique, mostly used ML and DL methods for COVID-19 detection, diagnosis, screening, classification, drug repurposing, prediction, and forecasting, and insights about where the current research is heading are highlighted. Recent research and development in the field of artificial intelligence has greatly improved the COVID-19 screening, diagnostics, and prediction and results in better scale-up, timely response, most reliable, and efficient outcomes, and sometimes outperforms humans in certain healthcare tasks. This review article will help researchers, healthcare institutes and organizations, government officials, and policymakers with new insights into how AI can control the COVID-19 pandemic and drive more research and studies for mitigating the COVID-19 outbreak.

Objectives: To ascertain factors associated with worsening of psychiatric conditions during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Methods: This study anonymously examined 2,734 psychiatric patients worldwide for worsening of their preexisting psychiatric conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. An independent clinical investigation of 318 psychiatric patients from United States was used for verification.Results: Valid responses mainly from 12 featured countries indicated self-reported worsening of psychiatric conditions in two-thirds of the patients assessed that was through their significantly higher scores on scales for general psychological disturbance, posttraumatic stress disorder, and depression. Female gender, feeling no control of the situation, reporting dissatisfaction with the response of the state during the COVID-19 pandemic, and reduced interaction with family and friends increased the worsening of preexisting psychiatric conditions, whereas optimism, ability to share concerns with family and friends, and using social media like usual were associated with less worsening. An independent clinical investigation from the United States confirmed worsening of psychiatric conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic based on identification of new symptoms that necessitated clinical interventions such as dose adjustment or starting new medications in more than half of the patients.Conclusions: More than half of the patients are experiencing worsening of their psychiatric conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The epithelial cell layer that covers the surface of the cornea provides a protective barrier while maintaining corneal transparency. The rapid and effective turnover of these epithelial cells depends, in part, on the limbal epithelial stem cells (LESCs) located in a specialized microenvironment known as the limbal niche. Many disorders affecting the regeneration of the corneal epithelium are related to deficiency and/or dysfunction of LESCs and the limbal niche. Current approaches for regenerating the corneal epithelium following significant injuries such as burns and inflammatory attacks are primarily aimed at repopulating the LESCs. This review summarizes and assesses the clinical feasibility and efficacy of current and emerging approaches for reconstruction of the limbal niche. In particular, the application of mesenchymal stem cells along with appropriate biological scaffolds appear to be promising strategies for long-term revitalization of the limbal niche.

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A new remote wet lab allowing residents to maintain social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic and perform a corneal suturing task on porcine eyes with remote attending feedback is described.

Purpose To describe the clinical presentation and management of late (>3.0 years) acute graft rejection in keratolimbal allograft (KLAL) recipients. Methods Multicenter, retrospective observational case series. 6 eyes of 6 patients with ocular surface transplant at a mean age of 36.2 years seen at 3 tertiary referral centers for acute graft rejection between 2007 and 2013. Main outcome measures included strength of systemic immunosuppression (SI) at the time of rejection, time to rejection, and clinical presentation of rejection. Results Preoperative diagnoses included total limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) due to aniridia (n = 2) or chemical injury (n = 4). Following an initially successful outcome, patients experienced late acute graft rejection at a mean time of 67.8 ± 24.1 months (range: 41 to 98) after KLAL while receiving suboptimal levels of SI due to medication taper (n = 5) or noncompliance (n = 1). Objective findings included an epithelial rejection line (n = 6), edema (n = 2), corneal epithelial irregularities (n = 2), and neovascularization (n = 1). Anti-rejection management consisted of topical corticosteroids (n = 6) and augmentation of SI therapy (n = 5). Conclusion These cases of late acute graft rejection in KLAL patients support the notion that allodonor cells can persist over the long run and remain at risk for immunologic rejection. It further underscores the fact that long-term success with KLAL may require extension of SI beyond the first few years, albeit at lower levels individualized to each patient.