Eye Care News

Laser treatment has the potential to transform the management of glaucoma in Africa, and to prevent more people from going irreversibly blind, particularly in regions with high disease prevalence and incidence, suggests new research. Conducted in Tanzania, the research is the first randomised controlled trial exploring the use of the laser treatment, Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty (SLT), for patients with glaucoma in Sub-Saharan Africa.

A new study has revealed a link between screen time and higher risk and severity of myopia, or short-sightedness, in children and young adults.

An international agreement to protect the ozone layer is expected to prevent 443 million cases of skin cancer and 63 million cataract cases for people born in the United States through the end of this century, according to new research. The research team developed a computer modeling approach that revealed the effect of the Montreal Protocol and subsequent amendments on stratospheric ozone, the associated reductions in ultraviolet radiation, and the resulting health benefits.

Researchers have identified the mechanism that can lead to deafness in the rare syndrome, Norrie disease, which may lead to promising treatment targets for the incurable disease and other forms of profound hearing loss.

In geographic atrophy, a late form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), reading ability is closely related to the altered retinal structure. Reading speed makes everyday functional impairment measurable, which the most common functional test in ophthalmology — the best-corrected visual acuity assessment – cannot reflect. Retinal imaging can be used to assess loss of reading ability even when central visual acuity is still good.