A weed by any other name.

A 39-year-old white man presented with intractable headaches and papilledema. The initial workup, with normal MRI and MRV but elevated cerebrospinal fluid protein raised concerns about the putative diagnosis of idiopathic intracranial hypertension, and his condition remained refractory to maximum medical treatment. Angiography revealed cerebral venous sinus stenosis, thought to represent chronic thrombosis. The diagnosis and treatment of cerebral venous sinus stenosis and thrombosis are discussed.

Ocular nail gun injuries: epidemiology and visual outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Nail-gun accidents have become a common reason for penetrating ocular injuries in patients presenting to the emergency room with globe trauma. To date, there are only five patients (one case report and one small case series) in the medical literature of penetrating ocular injury due to nail-guns. The aim of this study is to describe the epidemiology and visual outcomes of patients presenting to a tertiary medical center with ocular injuries resulting from nail-gun injuries. METHODS: This is an institutional review board-approved retrospective chart review of 24 patients presenting to the Medical University of South Carolina after sustaining eye injuries secondary to the use of nail-guns. The records of 178 patients with penetrating eye injuries treated between July 1996 and June 2006 were reviewed. Twenty-four patients (14%) had open globe injuries related to nail-guns. Demographic data, ocular examination findings, and visual outcomes were recorded. RESULTS: Of the 24 cases identified, 17 were work-related; this represented approximately 71% of patients. All were men with an average age of 29.4 years. Fifty-eight percent of the patients were non-English speaking. There was no record of any patient wearing safety glasses at the time of injury. The visual acuity at presentation ranged from 20/20 to hand motion or worse. Half (50%) of these patients had a presenting visual acuity of hand motion or worse. At last examination, 38% (nine patients) had visual acuity of 20/40 or better, 34% (eight patients) had visual acuity of counting fingers to hand motion, 13% (three patients) 20/60, 4% (one patient) 20/200, and three were lost to follow-up. The correlation coefficient between visual acuity at presentation and most recent was significant at 0.679 (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The majority of nail-gun injuries presented in this series were work-related. These injuries could be prevented with adherence to established safety measures including proper training and education of nail-gun operators, the use of sequential-trip triggers, and required safety glasses. Visual acuity outcomes of these 24 patients are better than what might be expected due to the nature of the injury.

Eye growth in the second decade of life: implications for the implantation of a multifocal intraocular lens.

PURPOSE: There is a growing interest in multifocal intraocular lens (IOL) implantation in children because they lose accommodation when a cataract is removed. Many have assumed that very little, if any, eye growth occurs in the second decade of life. Multifocal IOL implantation requires precise biometry to arrive at the correct IOL power for spectacle independence. If the eye grows and the refraction becomes myopic, spectacle dependence may return. Therefore, knowing when the eye has completed its growth is critical to the decision of when to implant a multifocal IOL. METHODS: Ninety-eight eyes were analyzed retrospectively. Each had at least two axial length (AL) measurements using immersion A-scan ultrasound in the second decade of life. RESULTS: Globe AL was 23.36 +/- 1.52 mm at initial measurement and 23.89 +/- 1.64 mm at last measurement. Measurement data show variable growth throughout the second decade of life. Based on our data, a theoretical patient was constructed with an AL at age 10 of 23.11 mm, who would need an IOL power of 21.5 for emmetropia. That same patient would have an AL of 23.76 mm (IOL power of 19.5) at age 15 and 24.41 mm (IOL power of 17.5) at age 20. That is a 4-diopter change in the IOL power need. CONCLUSION: Axial eye growth continues throughout the second decade of life, at least to age 20. These data have important implications for the use of multifocal IOLs in the preteen and teenage years.

Macular thickness assessment in healthy eyes based on ethnicity using Stratus OCT optical coherence tomography.

PURPOSE: To assess the variation in macular thickness measurements in healthy Caucasian and African American men and women through Stratus OCT optical coherence tomography (OCT-3). METHODS: One hundred sixty-six eyes of 83 healthy patients underwent complete ophthalmologic examination in this prospective study. Exclusion criteria included a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, intraocular pressure (IOP) greater than 21 mm Hg, history of eye surgery or trauma, or evidence of eye disease. For analysis purposes, the authors excluded those participants in whom OCT signal strength was <7 in each eye. A fast macular thickness protocol consisting of a 6-mm radial scan centered on the fovea was used for the analysis, and the data were analyzed using the t-test for independence and linear regression. Both eyes of each patient were analyzed using the OCT-3, and analysis showed a statistically significant correlation between right and left eyes. Therefore, only one eye from each patient was randomly selected for final correlation and analysis. RESULTS: Mean foveal thickness (MFT) for Caucasians was 32 microm greater than for African Americans (217 vs. 185 microm, respectively; P < 0.001). The MFT was significantly thicker in males than in females (220 vs. 197 microm, respectively; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The fovea is significantly less thick in African Americans and females than in Caucasians and males. Racial and sexual differences should be considered when interpreting an OCT scan.