Herpetic optic perineuritis presenting as classic abducens nerve palsy.

Optic perineuritis is a rare manifestation of herpes zoster ophthalmicus (HZO). Relative afferent pupillary defect (RAPD) is an important early clue to an impending nerve involvement, and robust clinical examination allows early detection of such rare metachronous manifestation of cutaneous HZ and institution of timely management for such sight-threatening conditions.

Small Centers with Big Ventures: Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation Survival Data

We present the first-ever autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) outcome data from a secondary-care healthcare facility. Albeit exact details of patient and disease characteristics and co-morbidity scores for all patients are not available, the engraftment and survival data is very similar to those published from large tertiary-care cancer centres, both regionally and internationally. Transplant Related Mortality (TRM) of 3.1% is within the expected range and includes a patient who died of acute drug reaction (ADR) during conditioning chemotherapy, prior to the ASCT. Furthermore, cyclophosphamide mobilization chemotherapy is given in the outpatient setting. This study is important in terms of healthcare resource optimization as well as patients' convenience and highlights that ASCT can be performed in a safe and effective manner with comparable survival rates even at a DGH, provided the centre stays abreast with the recent developments and can offer its patients with standard of care treatment of the era.