Noel A. Alpins, MD

SAN FRANCISCO — At the American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting, Noel Alpins, AM, FRANZCO, FRCOphth, FACS, discusses a new resource to help analyze astigmatic surgery data.

PARIS — At the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons meeting, Noel Alpins, MD, gives pearls on how to prevent residual corneal astigmatism and related nighttime visual phenomena in LASIK patients. He also gives instructions on how to get access to an online free vector planning calculator.

One of the disappointments for both the patient and refractive surgeon is to have a good visual result of 20/20 unaided in daylight but an “unhappy” patient because of the unwanted symptoms of GASH — an acronym for glare, ghosting, starburst, halos and reduced contrast sensitivity that can present in low light conditions. These symptoms are usually a surprise in that the patient does not expect it and the surgeon did not predict it.

SAN DIEGO — At the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting, Noel A. Alpins, MD, explains how vector planning can help mitigate visual disturbances caused by residual astigmatism following refractive surgery.

The word “innovation” connotes an element of time. An innovation is a leap forward, reaching a place that perhaps might have been ultimately reached but becomes reality more quickly than by evolutionary trial and error. As one credited with a few innovations, however, let me say that innovation is not for the impatient. Established paradigms are not easily shifted no matter how unsubstantiated the basis for their adoption may be.

VIENNA — At the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons meeting, Noel A. Alpins, MD, discusses how vector planning, which combines corneal topography and refraction, gives better visual outcomes than manifest refraction alone in refractive surgery.

WASHINGTON ― At the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting, Noel A. Alpins, MD, discusses astigmatism correction using CorT and vector planning to achieve the “perfect laser treatment.”

LOS ANGELES ― At the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting here, Noel A. Alpins, MD, discusses the use of vector planning to reduce astigmatism in refractive surgery.

The measure of corneal astigmatism magnitude and its meridian has become increasingly important with toric IOLs, femtosecond laser limbal relaxing incisions and high patient expectations to be independent of spectacles. Noel Alpins, my guest columnist in this issue, will explain this in detail.