Postoperative aphakia in modern cataract surgery: part 2: detailed analysis of the cause of aphakia and the visual outcome.

Purpose: To study the incidence of aphakia after cataract surgery, the surgical complications that can lead to it, and the visual outcome.

Setting: Six community-run eye clinics participating in the Swedish National Cataract Register.

Methods: Data on cataract extractions were collected prospectively from 1997 through 2001.

Postoperative aphakia in modern cataract surgery: part 1: analysis of incidence and risks based on 5-year data from the Swedish National Cataract Register.

Purpose: To study the incidence of aphakia after cataract extraction and evaluate the relative risk for this outcome in subgroups of patients based on preoperative conditions.

Setting: Sixty-two community-run or private clinics participating in the Swedish National Cataract Register.

Methods: Data on cataract extractions were collected prospectively from 1997 through 2001.

Cataract surgery and quality of life in patients with age related macular degeneration.

Background: The coexistence of cataract and age related macular degeneration (AMD) is not unusual, especially in the very elderly. The outcome of cataract surgery in these cases depends on the effect of AMD on vision. In this study the authors have compared the outcome of cataract patients with AMD to that of cataract patients with no vision threatening ocular comorbidity, and analysed possible predictors of good or poor outcome.

[Transplantation and donation of tissues--six years with the new law. Experiences from the tissue bank in Lund].

Tissue transplantation is more common than organ transplantation. Legislative changes in 1996 transformed tissue banking and conditions for tissue transplantation in Sweden. After an initial decrease in donated tissue, heart valves are now available in sufficient numbers, but there is sometimes a shortage of valves the right size for pediatric cardiac surgery.

Strategy to reduce the number of patients perceiving impaired visual function after cataract surgery.

Purpose: To reduce the number of patients who perceive more difficulties performing daily life activities 6 months after cataract extraction than before surgery.

Setting: Surgeons at 4 surgical units participating in the yearly outcome studies organized by the Swedish National Cataract Register.

Methods: This study comprised surgical outcomes data and completed Catquest results before and after surgery collected from consecutive patients during a 1-month period yearly since 1995.

Cataract surgery and effectiveness. 2. An index approach for the measurement of output and efficiency of cataract surgery at different surgery departments.

Purpose: To describe a model for comparing the performance of cataract surgery among ophthalmology departments in terms of economic efficiency.

Methods: An index approach for the measurement of outcome of cataract surgery is modeled. The index approach uses information about activities and difficulties in daily life as well as visual acuity and age.

Cataract surgery and effectiveness. 1. Variation in costs between different providers of cataract surgery.

Purpose: To describe and analyse the cost of cataract surgery in four community-run eye clinics in Sweden and also to analyse differences in cost between these clinics.

Methods: The average cost of a cataract surgery episode was calculated including one pre-operative visit, the surgery itself and the post-operative visits. Included in the analysis were the costs of disposables, personnel, rent, depreciation, general anaesthesia, bed days and education.

Impaired visual function after cataract surgery assessed using the Catquest questionnaire.

Purpose: To evaluate and explain why some patients report more difficulties performing everyday activities 6 months after a cataract extraction than they did before surgery.

Setting: Cataract surgeons from 4 departments of ophthalmology affiliated with the National Swedish Cataract Outcome Register.

Methods: Patients were recruited from those having cataract extraction during March 1995, 1996, or 1997 at the participating units.

Acanthamoeba keratitis in the south of Sweden.

Eight patients with Acanthamoeba keratitis were diagnosed and treated at our clinic between February 1991 and February 1993. Five of these were contact lens wearers, two had suffered recent corneal trauma and one had recently undergone penetrating keratoplasty. The diagnoses were based on both culture and histological examination of biopsy material in three cases, on culture alone in two cases and on histological examination alone in three cases.

The results of penetrating keratoplasty for keratoconus.

At the Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital in Lund, Sweden, keratoconus is the most common indication for penetrating keratoplasty. We studied 77 keratoplasties performed on keratoconic eyes between 1989-1991. Postoperative corrected visual acuity was better than or equal to 0.

Visual disturbances in man as a result of experimental and occupational exposure to dimethylethylamine.

Experimental exposure of four volunteers to 40-50 mg/m3 of dimethylethylamine (DMEA) for eight hours caused irritation of the mucous membrane of their eyes, subjective visual disturbances (haze), and slight oedema of the corneal epithelium. The thickness of the cornea showed a slight but consistent increase in all four subjects at these exposures and in two subjects exposed to 10 mg/m3. Concentrations of 80 and 160 mg/m3 for 15 minutes caused eye irritation but no visual disturbances or corneal oedema.

Visual disturbances after industrial triethylamine exposure.

Among 19 workers in a polyurethane foam production plant, visual disturbances ("foggy vision", "blue haze", and sometimes halo phenomena) were reported on a total of 47 occasions by five workers over 11 weeks. The symptoms were associated with triethylamine exposure. Time-weighted average levels of 12 to 13 mg/m3 were recorded at work operations associated with symptoms, and 4 to 5 mg/m3 at other tasks.

Visual disturbances after experimental human exposure to triethylamine.

Two volunteers were exposed to various airborne concentrations of triethylamine. Levels of 18 mg/m3 for eight hours caused subjective visual disturbances (haze and halos) and objective corneal oedema. The effects faded within hours after the end of exposure.

Indoleamine-accumulating horizontal cells in the squirrel monkey retina.

Horizontal cells capable of selectively accumulating indoleamines have been found in the retina of Saimiri sciureus, the New World squirrel monkey. The uptake of 3H-serotonin (5HT) in vivo and in vitro has been localized by light and electron microscopic (EM) autoradiography only to horizontal cells. In the central retina up to 50% and in the periphery 15-20% of the somas lying at the scleral border of the inner nuclear layer are labeled.

Localization of substance P-like immunoreactivity within the monkey retina.

Substance P (SP)--like immunoreactivity has been localized to distinct retinal cell populations in the primate Macaca nemestrina by means of immunohistochemical techniques with a well-characterized monoclonal antiserum directed to SP. The specificity of the immunoreactive staining was established by absorption of the antiserum with 10 micro M synthetic SP. Specific SP-like immunoreactivity was observed within varicose processes located in the outer plexiform layer, inner nuclear layer (INL), and in three bands within the inner plexiform layer (IPL).

Fluorescence and electron microscopical observations on the amine-accumulating neurons of the cebus monkey retina.

The organization of the Cebus monkey regina was analysed after the intraocular injection of 5,6-dihydroxytryptamine. This amine was taken up not only by the previously known dopaminergic neurons, but also by a set of indoleamine-accumulating neurons, whose processes are confined to the inner plexiform layer. The synaptic contacts of the dopaminergic neurons were analysed in the electron microscope after the processes of the indoleamine-accumulating neurons were destroyed by the intravitreal injection of the neurotoxic indoleamine, 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine.

Investigations into whether 5-hydroxytryptamine is a neurotransmitter in the retina of rabbit and chicken.

A system of indoleamine-accumulating neurons exists in the retina of several species, but the exact transmitter of these neurons is not known. 5-Hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) is a likely candidate, but there are conflicting reports on its amount in the retina. We have determined the amounts of 5-HT with two sensitive, specific, and independent methods.

Retinal indoleamine accumulating neurons.

A previously unknown set of neurons, characterized by their ability to accumulate indoleamines, has been identified in the retina of Cebus monkeys, rabbits, cats, pigeons, chicken, goldfish and lampreys. They are not demonstrable with presently available techniques in humans, Cynomolgus monkeys, cows, pigs and rats. The neurons are called indoleamine accumulating neuron and form a subset of amacrine cells, distinguishable from all other subsets of amacrines with known transmitter.

Indoleamine accumulating neurons in the retina of chicken and pigeon. A comparison with the dopaminergic neurons.

Recently a special group of indoleamine accumulating neurons has been described in the retina of some mammals and goldfish. These neurons are characterized by their ability to accumulate indoleamines, whereby they become visible in the fluorescence microscope. They do not show any spontaneuos fluorescence.

Absence of indoleamine-accumulating neurons in the retina of humans and cynomolgus monkeys.

Indoleamine-accumulating neurons have previously been detected in cats, rabbits, goldfish, chicken, pigeons, and Cebus monkeys, and were therefore also looked for in humans and in Old World monkey. Cynomolgus irus. The monkey eyes were injected intravitreally with 50 microgram 5,6-dihydroxytryptamine, 5 microgram alpha-methylnoradrenaline, or both drugs simultaneously.

Arguments against 5-hydroxytryptamine as neurotransmitter in the rabbit retina.

The indoleamine accumulating retinal neurons are visualized only by uptake of exogenously applied indoleamines but lack fluorescence in the normal retina. These neurons have now been studied in the rabbit after pretreatment with L-tryptophan and a monoamine oxidase inhibitor with an improved histofluorescence method based on perfusion with formaldehyde-glyoxylic acid pH 4.5 containing high amounts of magnesium.