Severe ocular chemical injury in the UK: a British Ophthalmological Surveillance Unit study.

BACKGROUND: Severe ocular chemical injury is a potentially devastating condition which most commonly affects men of working age. Workplace injuries previously accounted for the majority of incidents, but there has been a recent increase in assaults involving corrosive substances throughout the UK. The objectives of this study were to determine the incidence and demographics of severe ocular chemical injury and describe current surgical management practices. METHODS: Cases were prospectively ascertained through the British Ophthalmological Surveillance Unit monthly reporting system during 2019-21. In total, 20 cases involving 29 eyes met the inclusion criteria. RESULTS: The reported incidence of severe ocular chemical injury during the pre-pandemic period of the study was 0.24 per million. Cases due to alleged assault have become more common than workplace injuries. A total of 81% patients had persistent complications at 6 months requiring ongoing treatment, and 60% patients required surgical intervention. CONCLUSION: Although there are limitations with the case ascertainment methods, severe ocular chemical injury remains rare within the UK. There has been a proportionate increase in cases related to alleged assault compared with previous similar studies. Amniotic membrane grafting remains the most commonly performed surgical procedure in these patients.

The diagnostic accuracy of OCT angiography in naive and treated neovascular age-related macular degeneration: a review.

Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is a non-invasive retinal imaging innovation that has been gaining popularity for the evaluation of the retinal vasculature. Of clinical importance is its current use either as an alternative or in conjunction with conventional dye-based angiography in neovascular age-related macular degeneration. OCTA is not without limitations and these include image artefact, a relatively small field of view and failure of the segmentation algorithms, which can confound the interpretation of findings. While there are numerous publications on OCTA in neovascular AMD, few have examined the diagnostic accuracy of this new technology compared with the accepted gold standard of fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA). In this review, we summarise the literature on the clinical application of OCTA in nAMD. In particular, we have reviewed the published articles that have reported the sensitivity and specificity of OCTA in the diagnosis of nAMD, and those that have described and or correlated the morphological findings and compared them to dye-based angiography.

Extrusion and Breakage of XEN Gel Stent Resulting in Endophthalmitis.

The mainstay of open-angle glaucoma surgery involves subconjunctival drainage of aqueous fluid. Insertion of the XEN Gel Stent leads to formation of a subconjunctival bleb to assist in the drainage of aqueous fluid and offers the advantage of ease and speed of insertion with conjunctival sparing over traditional surgical techniques. This is the first case of XEN Gel Stent-related endophthalmitis associated with extrusion and breakage of the stent, a previously undocumented complication of this relatively new surgery.