Early-Phase Perceptions of COVID-19's Impact on Ophthalmology Practice Patterns: A Survey from the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology.

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic affected medical practice worldwide due to interventions to prevent spreading. Its effect on ophthalmology practices in Latin America has not yet been explored. We aimed to assess the perceptions about the pandemic from countries' ophthalmological national and subspecialty retina societies affiliated to the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology (PAAO).

Donor graft harvesting with air in pterygium surgery.

Purpose: Report a new technique for improvement of pterygium surgery: donor graft harvesting with air.

Case Reports: We describe a technique that was used with 138 patients who underwent surgery that included a conjunctival autograft and fibrin glue with air injection to dissect the Tenon capsule from the conjunctiva.

Results: No complications occurred with this technique and all patients achieved good results.

Oral pilocarpine for the treatment of dry eye in patients with Sjögren's syndrome.

Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of oral pilocarpine (20 mg daily) for the treatment of dry eye in patients with Sjogren's Syndrome. The frequency of side effects reported during the treatment was also investigated.

Methods: In this placebo-controlled crossover study, 32 patients with Sjögren's syndrome were enrolled to receive either oral pilocarpine or placebo for 10 weeks.

Descemet's membrane endothelial keratoplasty for acute corneal hydrops: a case report.

Here, we describe the result of a Descemet's membrane endothelial keratoplasty for acute corneal hydrops in a 45-year-old female with keratoconus, who presented with severe visual loss in her OS. The patient's best-corrected visual acuity was 20/80 in the right eye and hand motion in the OS. Slit-lamp examination revealed an extensive tear of the Descemet's membrane and stromal corneal edema in the OS.

Vision status, ophthalmic assessment, and quality of life in the very old.

Purpose: To determine the vision status, ophthalmic findings, and quality of life among the very elderly.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional observational study of individuals aged 80 years and above. A comprehensive ophthalmic exam was performed with mea surement of both the presenting (PVA) and best-corrected visual acuity.

Eyelid aging: pathophysiology and clinical management.

Life expectancy is increasing in most countries. With increasing age, many individuals may develop involutional ophthalmic diseases, such as eyelid aging. Dermatochalasis, ptosis, ectropion, and entropion are common disorders in middle-aged and older adults.

Induction of corneal collagen cross-linking in experimental corneal alkali burns in rabbits.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of riboflavin-ultraviolet-A-induced cross-linking (CXL) following corneal alkali burns in rabbits. Methods: The right corneas and limbi of ten rabbits were burned using a 1N solution of NaOH and the animals were then divided into two groups: a control group submitted to clinical treatment alone and an experimental group that was treated 1 h after injury with CXL, followed by the same clinical treatment as administered to the controls. Clinical parameters were evaluated post-injury at 1, 7, 15, and 30 days by two independent observers.

Assessment of visual acuity in patients with dementia using teller acuity cards.

Unlabelled: Assessing visual acuity in adults or children at an eye exam is generally simple and has become routine procedure in clinical practice. However, depending on severity and stage of clinical evolution, elderly patients with dementia may experience difficulties performing tests of recognition, because these tests depend not only on perception, but also cognition and its response. Testing visual functions in such cases represents a challenge in clinical practice and a task that requires proper skills and methods.

Direct fluorescent antibody assay and polymerase chain reaction for the detection of Chlamydia trachomatis in patients with vernal keratoconjunctivitis.

Objectives: To identify Chlamydia trachomatis via polymerase chain reaction and a direct fluorescent antibody assay in patients with vernal keratoconjunctivitis while comparing the efficacies of both tests for detecting Chlamydia trachomatis in these conditions.

Methods: Conjunctival scraping samples were obtained from 177 patients who were divided into two groups: a vernal keratoconjunctivitis group (group A) and a control group (group B). The polymerase chain reaction and a direct fluorescent antibody assay were performed.

[Efficacy of fibrin tissue adhesive in the attachment of autogenous conjuntival graft on primary pterygium surgery].

Purpose: To compare the efficacy of conjunctival autograft surgery with the attachment to the scleral bed using fibrin tissue adhesive or mononylon 10-0 suture after resection of primary pterygium.

Methods: A comparative, prospective and randomized clinical trial was performed in 47 eyes of 47 patients with primary medial located pterygium. Group 1 (adhesive) was composed by 21 patients that underwent conjunctival autograft closure with fibrin tissue adhesive (Quixil™) and Group 2 (suture) was composed by 26 patients that underwent pterygium surgery with mononylon 10-0 (Ethicon(®)) suture (suture group) after pterygium excision.

[Ocular surface and hepatitis C].

Purpose: To evaluate the outcomes of the tests used for dry eye diagnosis in patients with hepatitis C virus, and to verify if there is any relationship between the duration of illness and intensity of ocular surface changes.

Methods: 25 patients with hepatitis C virus without treatment, and 29 patients with negative serologic tests for hepatitis C virus were selected. Biomicroscopy, tear film crystallization test, tear film break-up time, evaluation of the corneal staining with 1% fluorescein sodium, Schirmer I test, ocular surface staining with 1% rose bengal and esthesiometry were performed in both groups.

Involutional ectropion and entropion: clinicopathologic correlation between horizontal eyelid laxity and eyelid extracellular matrix.

Purpose: To investigate the clinicopathologic correlation between horizontal eyelid laxity and extracellular matrix components, such as collagen and elastic fibers, in involutional ectropion and entropion. Another goal was to compare the differences between involutional ectropion and entropion in regard to extracellular matrix content using computer-assisted morphometry.

Methods: This clinicopathologic study included 20 consecutive patients with involutional ectropion (group 1) and 20 consecutive patients with involutional entropion (group 2).

Involutional entropion and ectropion of the lower eyelid: prevalence and associated risk factors in the elderly population.

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of involutional entropion and ectropion of the lower eyelid in the elderly population; to examine how these disorders are related to gender, age, skin color, and axial ocular globe projection; and to define the incidence of associated ocular surface and pathologic eyelid findings.

Methods: An ophthalmic survey was conducted in 24,565 elderly people. All participants underwent ophthalmic examination by general ophthalmologists to identify entropion and ectropion.

Systemic monoclonal antibody therapy (daclizumab) in the treatment of cicatrizing conjunctivitis in stevens-johnson syndrome, refractory to conventional therapy.

Purpose: At least one-year follow-up of a case series of young Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) patients with cicatrizing ocular surface disease and recurrent inflammation (SJS-RI) treated with systemic humanized monoclonal antibody (daclizumab).

Methods: Five patients (median age 16 yr; range 8-34 yr) with SJS, with recurrent inflammation refractory to conventional immunotherapy, were enrolled in a prospective non-randomized case series study. Inclusion criteria were patients with SJS and ocular cicatrizing inflammatory disease with severe visual impairment, using topical or systemic anti-inflammatory and/or immunomodulatory drugs without clinical improvement resulting in persistent inflammation (SJS-RI).

Ten-year follow-up of a case series of primary epithelial neoplasms of the lacrimal gland: clinical features, surgical treatment and histopathological findings.

Purpose: To describe and analyze the features of a cases series of patients with primary epithelial neoplasms of the lacrimal gland, its surgical treatment, and histopathological findings.

Methods: Retrospective evaluation of files from patients with primary epithelial neoplasms of the lacrimal gland in the period from 1997 to 2007. All patients with primary epithelial tumors of the lacrimal gland were included in this study.

[Trachoma: epidemiologic study in students in Alagoas State--Brazil].

Purpose: To define the detection rate of trachoma in scholars from Alagoas--Brazil.

Methods: The sample included 6,424 children and adolescents. Scholar's clinical evaluation was performed by medical students under the supervision of professors of the Department of Ophthalmology, according to the World Health Organization guidelines.

[Correlation between signals and symptoms of dry eye in Sjögren's syndrome patients].

Purpose: To study the correlation between the signals and symptoms of dry eye in Sjögren's syndrome patients.

Methods: We formed the case group with 17 Sjögren's syndrome patients and the control group with 25 normal patients. For evaluation of the symptoms the "Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI)" questionnaire was applied to both groups and, after that, all the individuals were submitted to the ocular tests: Schirmer I and II, coloration of the ocular surface with rose bengal, pachymetry and esthesiometry.

[Trends in the indications for penetrating keratoplasty].

Purpose: To identify the indications for penetrating keratoplasty at the Department of Ophthalmology of the Santa Casa of São Paulo from January 1996 to December 2005 and to compare them with those from January 1991 to December 1995.

Methods: Charts of patients who had undergone penetrating keratoplasty from January 1996 to December 2006 were retrospectively reviewed.

Results: There were 587 keratoplasties done in this period.

[Reproducibility of the classification of ocular ferning patterns in Sjogren's syndrome patients].

Purpose: To verify the reproducibility of Rolando's classification of the tear ferning test using five different examiners and to compare the patterns of crystallization found in Sjögren's syndrome patients and normal subjects.

Methods: Tear ferning analysis of 29 patients with Sjögren's syndrome and of 45 patients without ocular disease were done using polarized light microscopy and the Rolando classification for tear ferning. Five examiners classified the ferning patterns of all the patients.