Read the latest RCOphth news updates and guidance here.
The Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth) recently took the opportunity to provide a statement as part of The Royal College of Physicians response to the Welsh Assembly (Senedd) Public Accounts Committee inquiry into the management of follow up outpatients across Wales.
The College has been made aware of two ophthalmic units with a run of a small number of cases of fibrin membrane deposition in association with the Zeiss Lucia 611P intraocular lens.
Cataract surgery is the most common operation performed, with approximately 400,000 operations delivered per year in the UK.
The Secretary of State for Transport’s Honorary Medical Advisory Panel on Driving and Visual Disorders has advised that it is the visual problems associated with nystagmus that are relevant when assessing fitness to drive, not nystagmus itself.
The College has recently received a report from NHS Improvement of a severe adverse reaction in a six month old child with anisocoria who had been administered apraclonidine 1% to help exclude Horner syndrome.
We are calling on all those involved in funding and running national clinical audits to support our campaign #makemydatacount.
The Royal College of Ophthalmologists supports the quality standard but believes the implementation will be challenging for the overwhelmed hospital eye service.
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC) have published their response to the government consultation on the ‘Development of a Serious Shortage Protocol’ for drug supplies in the possible event of a no-deal Brexit.
The Genomics Education Programme (GEP), run by Health Education England, has launched a new resource for ophthalmologists and others involved in the delivery of ophthalmology services.
There have been several case reports on the use of nitrous oxide in the presence of intraocular gas after vitreoretinal surgery with severe loss of vision due to central retinal artery occlusion.2-6 There have also been some cases identified via national incident reporting systems. Nitrous oxide leaves the bloodstream and vitreous cavity quickly once inhalation is terminated,7 restoring the position of the lens-iris diaphragm and reperfusion of the central artery can happen. However, irreparable damage to the retina is known to occur after 100 minutes of ischaemia.7 The extent of damage to the eye may therefore be dependent on the duration of general anaesthesia / use of Entonox and the size of intraocular gas bubble at that time. There is a theoretical risk of harm (raised intraocular pressure or hypoxic iris) in anterior chamber gas bubbles during keratoplasty in the same circumstances, that is flying, high altitude or nitrous oxide use. It is currently unclear whether this represents a significant risk, as there is little published, but some corneal surgeons are warning their patients not to fly postoperatively.
