Six Basic Rules of Palliative Care and Their Buddhist Counterparts.

As healthcare workers in palliative care, every day brings its share of awfulness and beauty, suffering and connection, meaning and cynicism. Without a way to support ourselves, we cannot help our patients, let alone one another. But how do we cope? Despite the unpredictability inherent in our work, we can discern certain patterns that offer an approach for dealing with these stressors.

The management of gas-filled eyes in the emergency department.

Background. Intraocular gas bubbles are commonly used in retinal surgery. There are specific management guidelines that need to be followed to ensure surgical success, and there are also unique ophthalmic and systemic complications that can occur in such patients.

Automated analysis of retinal images for detection of referable diabetic retinopathy.

Importance: The diagnostic accuracy of computer detection programs has been reported to be comparable to that of specialists and expert readers, but no computer detection programs have been validated in an independent cohort using an internationally recognized diabetic retinopathy (DR) standard.

Objective: To determine the sensitivity and specificity of the Iowa Detection Program (IDP) to detect referable diabetic retinopathy (RDR).

Design And Setting: In primary care DR clinics in France, from January 1, 2005, through December 31, 2010, patients were photographed consecutively, and retinal color images were graded for retinopathy severity according to the International Clinical Diabetic Retinopathy scale and macular edema by 3 masked independent retinal specialists and regraded with adjudication until consensus.

A regional survey of dentists' preferences for hiring a dental associate.

Background: For many new dental school graduates, working as an associate may be an attractive option. To provide practical information for new job-seeking dentists, the authors conducted a survey to assess dentists' preferences with regard to hiring an associate.

Methods: The authors mailed surveys to a random sample of 3,875 general dentists in four states that asked questions about the characteristics they preferred when hiring an associate.

Dementia with lewy bodies and charles bonnet syndrome.

Background: Ophthalmologists may be the first to hear about formed visual hallucinations in the setting of visual loss. Although such hallucinations are likely benign and occur in association with the Charles Bonnet syndrome, it is important to be aware of the strong association of hallucinations with dementia with Lewy bodies because the latter diagnosis is associated with significant prognostic and therapeutic implications for the patient.

Methods: Single case report.

Corticosteroids in posterior segment disease: an update on new delivery systems and new indications.

Purpose Of Review: Corticosteroids are traditionally used for inflammatory disorders because of their ability to diminish neutrophil transmigration, limit access to sites of inflammation, and decrease cytokine production. More recently, however, investigators have focused on the angiostatic and antipermeability properties of corticosteroids for posterior segment diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy, and macular edema. Both new angiostatic and traditional corticosteroids are currently undergoing evaluation as new delivery techniques such as intravitreal injection and intraocular sustained-release devices facilitate high local angiostatic and antipermeability concentrations while minimizing extraocular toxicity.