VIDEO: Multidisciplinary approach key for ongoing monitoring of patients with neurotrophic keratitis

Editor’s note: This is an automatically generated transcript, which has been slightly edited for clarity. Please notify editor@healio.com if there are concerns regarding accuracy of the transcription.

We touched on this a little bit earlier about the multidisciplinary team approach both in and outside of the OR, pending your preferred approach for your NK patients. Obviously the answer also depends on the intensity of the interaction across disciplines may also depend on when the patient is diagnosed and their response to treatment and the outcome. But regardless of that, patients often will still require ongoing monitoring for both their ocular surface health as well as for their visual rehabilitation with glasses or contact lenses at the very basic level.

I think in primary care and secondary care team approach here that our primary care physicians need to remember that during those ongoing, long-term follow-ups, after one treatment or multiple treatments have been done, whether it’s for contact lens evaluation or corneal monitoring or that patient’s doing well, they’re coming back for their 6-month or 12-month regular follow-up, we need to be vigilant in observing the health of the tear film, ocular surface, corneal surface, ocular annexa and any other underlying disease that may have led to NK in the first place. Because we need to then, that would help us, that documentation will help us to decide at the primary care level if we are referring the patient back to the cornea specialist for further evaluation.

It’s very basic level, I think, that very important interaction between primary and secondary care.