Ocular Oncology News

Drug-induced ocular side effects are common in every ophthalmologist’s practice. When we review our senior patients’ lists of medicines, it is amazing how many drugs most are taking. If we add in herbal remedies, which is a $20 billion market in the United States alone, the list grows even longer. And then we must finally consider environmental toxins and chemicals.

A 50-year-old woman presented to an outside ophthalmologist with a 2-month history of irritation and discharge after injury to the left eye with a mascara brush. Her exam was notable for conjunctival injection and a nasal conjunctival scar. She was treated with erythromycin ointment and a topical steroid with improvement of her symptoms; however, her conjunctival scar remained unchanged, so she was referred to Tufts Medical Center for evaluation. Before this, the patient had no ocular issues. She was otherwise healthy with no medical history or prescribed medications. Her social history was notable for a 30 pack-year smoking history, but she had recently quit smoking.

Healio.com/OSN is the online home of Ocular Surgery News. In addition to housing the online version of OSN, Healio/OSN creates daily news, meeting news coverage, executive summaries of journal articles, perspectives, videos, blogs and podcasts. With the increasing importance of Healio as the online presence of Ocular Surgery News and the continuous growth that is taking place online, we decided it was a good time to boost the Healio/OSN editorial board presence in the ophthalmic community.

Immunocore and Pulse Infoframe announced a partnership to support a global patient registry in uveal melanoma, according to a press release.

A possible survival advantage in patients with metastatic uveal melanoma who respond to treatment with pembrolizumab is suggested in a study of the anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody as immunotherapy for advanced disease.

Clearside Biomedical has entered into a worldwide license agreement with Aura Biosciences for the use of Clearside’s suprachoroidal space microinjector, according to a press release.

Jerry A. Shields , MD, has received the 2019 Lucien Howe Medal from the American Ophthalmological Society for his distinguished service throughout his career, Wills Eye Hospital announced in a press release.

With every millimeter of tumor thickening, risk for metastasis and death increases in patients with large uveal melanoma, Carol L. Shields, MD, said in a presentation at the Wills Eye Conference in Philadelphia.

A 34-year-old woman was transferred to the University of New Mexico emergency department with a 3-day history of progressive left eye swelling. She complained of mild blurry vision, diplopia, discomfort with eye movements and difficulty opening the left eye. She also noted foul-smelling left-sided nasal discharge, subjective fevers and nausea for the past 3 days. She reported having a history of left-sided epistaxis requiring nasal cautery about 2 or 3 years before presentation. She also had a 1-year history of increased tearing in the left eye. She had no other significant medical or surgical history. Her family history was noncontributory. She used over-the-counter nasal spray. She denied tobacco and recreational drug use and reported occasional alcohol use.

A 31-year-old man was referred to the neuro-ophthalmology service for 3 weeks of cloudy vision in the right eye and intermittent headaches. He felt that this came on suddenly one morning and described darkening of the lower portion of his visual field.