Public and Physicians Perception of Oculoplastic Surgery Subspecialty in Saudi Arabia.

Objective: Oculoplastic surgery is a highly specialized subspecialty that studies pathologies of the orbit, lacrimal system, and eyelids. Although it is an independent ophthalmological subspecialty, many procedures fall within the shared scope and anatomical area of oculoplastic surgery, otorhinolaryngology, and plastic and reconstructive surgery, which tend to confuse physicians and patients seeking medical advice. In this study, our goal is to evaluate the perception of oculoplastic surgery among the public and physicians. Methodology: A cross-sectional study in which data were collected from an online questionnaire formulated by the authors. The questionnaire included 18 questions divided into two categories: demographics and targeted questions that serve the objective of the study. Each answer option to targeted questions was encoded with either one or zero points, and each participant's response was scored accordingly, with the maximum score being 22 points, reflecting the highest perception rate according to the questionnaire. Results: Data were collected from 1029 questionnaire responses, with 202 of the respondents belonging to physicians. The highest number of responses was from females which consisted 82% of our sample. Perception scores were higher among physicians with a mean of 12.3 ± 2.9 points compared to a mean score of 11.2 ± 2.9 among the public. Age played a statistically significant factor in both physicians and the public as younger participants' scores were higher. Conclusion: Insufficient knowledge of oculoplastic surgery subspecialty was observed among the public and physicians. Moreover, core aspects of oculoplastic field such as lacrimal system pathology and orbit pathology were less recognized by participants of our study, which highlights the importance of raising awareness of oculoplastic surgery and the diversity of the field, to enhance referral patterns among physicians and improve medical advice seeking among the public resulting in better health care.

Testing the Sensitivity of Conjunctival Swabs from Confirmed COVID-19 Patients.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the incidence of COVID-19 viral RNA in the conjunctiva of patients priorly confirmed to have COVID-19, using a conjunctival swab and to determine swab sensitivity. METHODS: This cross-sectional study enrolled patients who tested positive for COVID-19 with PCR via nasopharyngeal swabs. Conjunctival swabs were collected for each patient and subjected to RT-PCR assay. Demographic data and clinical history of patients were investigated and analysed. RESULTS: In this study, 4.9% of the patients tested positive with conjunctival swabs for COVID-19; 29.9%, 28.7%, 20.1%, and 12.2% of the patients had fever, shortness of breath, cough, and red eye, respectively. Among all patients, 18.9% and 73.2% had a history of traveling and contact with positive COVID-19 cases, respectively. There were significant correlations between the conjunctival results and diabetes (P=0.049) and hypertension (P=0.002). Traveling was a risk factor for positive conjunctival swab testing (P=0.016). The sensitivity of the conjunctival swab was 4.8%. CONCLUSION: Among all positive cases of COVID-19, a small percentage had positive results when tested using a conjunctival swab. Conjunctival swabs have very low sensitivity for the detection of COVID-19. However, tears could still be a mode of disease transmission, especially from patients to eye care specialists.

Outcomes of Two Surgical Techniques Using Silicone Rod for Frontalis Sling Suspension to Treat Severe Ptosis.

PURPOSE: To compare outcomes of two techniques of frontalis silicone sling surgery. METHODS: This retrospective, nonrandomized chart review was performed on patients undergoing frontalis sling surgery between 2008 and 2011. Silicone rods were sutured to the tarsal plate through an eyelid crease incision (open method) or stab incisions (closed method). Data were collected on age, gender, type of surgery, preoperative and postoperative margin reflex distance (MRD), and complications. A successful outcome was defined as a postoperative score of 2 to 4 for MRD or an improvement in MRD. RESULTS: A total of 155 eyelids of 146 patients with ptosis were included. There were 60 patients in the open method group and 85 patients in the closed method group, respectively. Successful outcomes were seen in 30 (50%) patients in the open method and 44 (51.8%) patients in the closed method groups. There were 61 (71.8%) patients in the open method group and 45 (75%) patients in the closed method group who had improved MRD at last follow-up. The main complications were exposure keratitis, eyelash ptosis, and eyelid crease abnormalities that occurred only in the closed method group. CONCLUSIONS: The silicone frontalis sling procedure had the same success rates in both the open and closed methods. Eyelash and eyelid crease abnormalities were unique to the closed method. [J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus. 2017;54(1):52-58.].