OSN New York 2011 aims to deliver clinical relevance in interactive format

This year’s meeting will be held Nov. 18 to 20 at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers.

This year’s OSN New York symposium will feature an interactive format and comprehensive agenda delivered by world-renowned faculty. A little New York City fun and some informal sessions will round out the meeting, which takes place Nov. 18 to 20 at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers.

Friday

Kicking off the agenda is the cataract surgery session. Among the talks will be “Phaco in Small Pupils” by Thomas W. Samuelson, MD, OSN Glaucoma Section Editor.

“We’ll be concentrating on tailoring the surgery to the etiology of the small pupil,” Dr. Samuelson said. “Not all small pupils are the same, so you want to treat each patient individually, based on the reason the pupil is small. For instance, a small pupil related to exfoliation might be treated differently than a small pupil related to using an alpha-blocker.”

Also at the cataract surgery section, OSN Chief Medical Editor Richard L. Lindstrom, MD, will present “Femtosecond Laser Phaco: An Update on all Technologies.”

“This is one of the most controversial new technologies for cataract surgery now commercializing around the world,” Dr. Lindstrom said. “I’ll be sharing the data that is accumulating about the laser and what the data show the laser is capable of doing.”

Later on Friday, Dr. Samuelson will serve as section chair for a fast-paced symposium, “Glaucoma Management Before, During and After Cataract Surgery.”

“We are going to key on the influence of the patient’s natural lens and how that influences surgical management decisions,” he said. “We’ll be looking at many of the new minimally invasive glaucoma procedures, while trying to maximize safety and effectively manage intraocular pressure.”

Hot topics in glaucoma management will also be covered during the panel discussion and video. “We’ll try to sort out the rapid changes occurring in surgical glaucoma,” Dr. Samuelson said.

Saturday

A Town Hall with Richard L. Lindstrom, MD, will set the stage for a candid discussion about whether the current state of restrictions and regulation are hampering innovation in ophthalmology. Physicians, panelists and other professionals will discuss the FDA approval process; the perception of industry-physician conflicts of interest; and how these items may derail or delay the innovative process of bringing efficacious treatment modalities to patients. This is a must-attend for physicians who care about the current crisis in ophthalmology and patient care, according to organizers.

Later, OSN SuperSite Board Member William B. Trattler, MD, will give presentations on wavefront and optimized ablation as well as corneal cross-linking for keratoconus or post-LASIK ectasia.

“While cross-linking is a few years away from approval, there are more than 50 sites in the U.S. that are currently providing cross-linking as part of clinical trials,” Dr. Trattler said. “I expect that audience members will be able to identify the optimal candidates for cross-linking, and understand how epithelial-on cross-linking can help reduce the risks with this procedure yet provide similar outcomes.”

For the wavefront presentation, Dr. Trattler will provide details on how to safely and effectively deliver wavefront-guided LASIK or surface ablation.

Also on deck Saturday morning, OSN SuperSite Section Editor Uday Devgan, MD, FACS, FRCS, will serve as section chair for a nuts-and-bolts session on lens-based refractive surgery. Dr. Devgan will present a panel of experts with a series of six challenging cases, including “IOL Calculations in Small and Large Eyes,” “Cystoid Macular Edema after IOL Surgery” and “Which Presbyopic IOL for Which Patient.”

“This will be a nice way to learn about commonly encountered tricky situations in lens-based refractive surgery,” Dr. Devgan said. “For example, how do you do lens calculations in unusual eyes? Or how do you approach a posterior polar cataract? For patients with forme fruste keratoconus, how do you address their astigmatism? Can you implant a toric lens in these patients?”

Dr. Devgan said the gathering in general “is a very high-yield meeting because every presentation offers clinically relevant pearls that you can take back and use in your practice right away. This is not one of those theoretical meetings where people talk about basic laboratory research.”

Sunday

The 3-day conference will conclude with a first-ever “Casual Case Study Sunday,” in which attendees are encouraged to forgo suits and ties for all presentations, including an early morning “Surgical Technique and Technology Video Symposium.”

“Our goal for Sunday is to feature case presentations and video as much as possible, and as minimally as possible formal lectures,” said Dr. Lindstrom, who proposed the casual day.

The final session, early Sunday afternoon, will be “Controversies in Femtosecond Lasers for Cataract Surgery and Refractive IOLs,” with Dr. Trattler as section chair. “The delivery of cataract surgery continues to undergo rapid evolution,” he said. “In this interactive program, faculty members will share their thoughts on how to handle challenging cases, including cases where patients were not as happy as expected with their visual outcomes with presbyopic IOLs. Discussion of some of the challenges as well as benefits of femtosecond cataract surgery will also be discussed, and cases will be presented that will focus on whether a standard or femtosecond laser treatment should be used.”

Dr. Trattler said that for the overall conference, “OSN continues to have a dynamic faculty that delivers practical, educational content that attendees can easily take home and implement into their practice. I know that after these meetings, I often will make some changes on how I care for patients, based directly on what I learned at the meeting.” – by Bob Kronemyer

• Uday Devgan, MD, FACS, FRCS, can be reached at 11600 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 200, Los Angeles, CA 90025; 800-337-1969; fax: 310-388-3028; email: devgan@gmail.com.
• Richard L. Lindstrom, MD, can be reached at Minnesota Eye Consultants, 9801 DuPont Ave. S, Suite 200, Bloomington, MN 55431; 952-888-5800; fax: 952-567-6182; email: rllindstrom@mneye.com.
• Thomas W. Samuelson, MD, can be reached at Minnesota Eye Consultants, 701 E. 24th St., Suite 100, Minneapolis, MN 55404; 612-813-3628; fax: 612-813-3656; email: twsamuelson@mneye.com.
• William B. Trattler, MD, can be reached at Center for Excellence in Eye Care, 8940 N. Kendall Drive, Suite 400, Miami, FL 33176; 305-598-2020; fax: 305-274-0426; email: wtrattler@gmail.com.
• Disclosures: Dr. Devgan is on the speakers’ bureau for Alcon. Drs. Lindstrom and Samuelson are consultants for Alcon. Dr. Trattler is a consultant for AMO, CXLUSA and LensAR.