Oculoplastics News

Allergan has made an offer to buy Inamed for about $3.2 billion, and Inamed’s board of directors has unanimously recommended that its shareholders accept the offer.

Nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome, also known as Gorlin syndrome, is an autosomal dominant condition transmitted with complete penetrants with variable expressivity. This means that half of the affected person’s children also have the syndrome. It affects one in every 50,000 to 100,000 people. It is due to an abnormal PTCH (patched) gene on chromosome 9q22.3-q31. This gene normally functions as a tumor-suppressor, so when it is not working properly, it may allow cancers to grow (medulloblastoma and meningioma).

Blowout fractures of the inferior orbital wall were more common in children than adults and following trauma, surgical intervention might be needed within 5 days in children with trapdoor factures and 2 weeks for adults, according to a study.

Extraocular muscle damage as a result of endoscopic sinus surgery can cause therapeutically challenging strabismus, according to a retrospective study.

Strontium-90 brachytherapy is as effective as iodine or ruthenium brachytherapy for small to medium-size choroidal melanomas but causes fewer complications over the long term, according to a study.

Clinically diagnosed keratoacanthoma can prove to be invasive squamous cell carcinoma in a significant percentage of cases, a study found. Complete excision of the tumor with margin control offers the safest management strategy, providing a definitive diagnosis, tissue conservation and a low recurrence rate, the study authors said.

Children who undergo an ocular injury that ranks higher than a 15 on the Injury Severity Score are more likely to experience orbital wall fractures and ocular contusions than children with a score lower than 15, according to a large study.

A free orbital fat graft may be an easy and effective method to prevent orbital implant exposure in patients requiring enucleation for retinoblastoma, according to a study.

Proton beam radiation therapy prevent loss of the eye in a large percentage of patients with choroidal melanoma, according to a British study.

Epiphora is one of the more common complaints in an ophthalmology practice. Defined as abnormal excessive tearing, epiphora can have a social impact, cause blur and be associated with infections, as shown in Figure 1. Knowing how to distinguish and assess the many causes of epiphora is essential to guiding successful treatment. This article will focus on the more common causes of epiphora, with emphasis on in-office treatment and topical therapy.