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Breakthroughs in retina voted top news in 2006
The OSN editorial board also selected articles on fungal keratitis, TASS, endophthalmitis and presbyopic IOLs as some of the most influential news items of the past year.
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The year 2006 brought dramatic advances in the retinal field, with the approval of one drug and the advent of off-label intravitreal use of a cancer drug as treatments for age-related macular degeneration.
 Richard L. Lindstrom |
In an unscientific poll, Ocular Surgery News Editorial Board Members were asked to choose the stories that had the most impact on our readers in 2006. The respondents chose articles on Avastin (bevacizumab, Genentech) and Lucentis (ranibizumab, Genentech/Novartis) as their No. 1 and No. 2 picks.
By the end of 2005, Avastin was just beginning to creep into the headlines, but it was not until this year that the anti-VEGF drug, which is approved for colon cancer, took center stage in the debate as its low cost and efficacy became apparent to many surgeons.
Therefore, it was not surprising that in-depth articles outlining the pros and cons of using this off-label treatment, “Pro: Intravitreal Avastin too beneficial not to use,” and “Con: Clinical efficacy of Avastin may not be enough” (April 1, page 1), generated considerable interest among readers.
Another news item lending fuel to the AMD debate was the article “Lucentis approved for use in U.S.” (July 15, page 1).
These newcomers to the AMD treatment arena served to broaden the discussion about which approach will produce optimal results for an aging population.
Fungal keratitis, TASS and endophthalmitis
Another news story that garnered many votes was “CDC confirms link between B&L lens solution and keratitis outbreak” (October 1, page 1). Ocular Surgery News followed the reports of this outbreak from the time that Bausch & Lomb voluntarily recalled its ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution in the spring to the final report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that conclusively linked the outbreak of Fusarium keratitis with the B&L solution.
The article “Final report: No single identifiable source of TASS outbreak,” detailing cases of toxic anterior segment syndrome, generated a substantial number of votes as well.
Two articles on a major European endophthalmitis study, “ESCRS Endophthalmitis Study results highlight annual meeting in London” and “Intracameral cefuroxime may help reduce endophthalmitis,” were also high on the list.
Presbyopic IOLs
In the first issue of the year, an article titled “Round table: Philosophy of mixing IOLs for presbyopia correction spurs debate” (January 1, page 1), received a high ranking from the Editorial Board.
As moderator of the discussion, my objective was for the panelists to debate the appropriateness of combining different models of presbyopia-correcting IOLs in two eyes of one patient.
Other subjects of interest
The remaining articles selected as the most interesting articles of 2006, as well as features and news that came in too late in the year to be reviewed by our Board, are listed in the table of contents on page 3.
We hope you will continue to turn to Ocular Surgery News in 2007 to get the whole story.