IOSS Regional Meeting - Pondicherry 2007

IOSS Regional Meeting

Date: Oct 6th (full day) and 7th (half day), 2007
Venue: Where in Aravind Eye Hospital; Pondicherry (Tamil Nadu, India)
Organizer: Dr. V.K. Raju, M.D., F.R.C.S., F.A.C.S.
Sponsor: International Ocular Surface Society, Ocular Surface Research & Education Foundation.

Focus Topics:

New Understanding and Management for Dry Eye and Multi-facets of Pterygium: Primary, Recurrent and Multi-recurrent

Program:

• Major Lectures given by Guest Speaker: Dr. Scheffer C. G. Tseng
• Two Session of Case(s) Presentation on Dry Eye and Pterygia given by consultants experienced in cornea and external eye diseases from eight centers in India.
• All lectures and case presentations should focus on two diseases: Dry Eye or Pterygia
• Abstracts for case presentation will be solicited and approved before this meeting.
• Ample time will be given for questions and discussion

Synopsis:

The one and half day meeting will be devoted to two common but complex diseases, namely, Dry Eye and Pterygium.

For “Dry Eye”, a new definition should encompass causes that lead to dysfunction of the tear film in both compositional and hydrodynamic components that are governed by neuroanatomic integration. Such a definition will unify all potential causes of dry eye, provide effective means for differential diagnosis, and help formulate new therapies. Furthermore, because a stable tear film is essential for maintaining ocular surface health, new strategies that can treat different causes of dry eye should be important in managing other ocular surface diseases, and serves as a pre-requisite for subsequent ocular surface reconstruction.

“Pterygium”, regarded as a degenerative disease, is now believed to carry the hallmark of fibrovascular growth. A myriad of surgical techniques had been devised to tackle pterygium growth, but few have achieved a consistent success of an esthetic outcome with minimal complications. By recognizing the role of inflammation in pterygium progression and recurrence, new surgical procedures will be discussed for primary, two-head, recurrent, and multi-recurrent pterygia regarding the use of anti-inflammatory agents and anti-metabolites, adequate removal of fibrovascular tissue, fibrin glue, and amniotic membrane graft with or without conjunctival autograft.

At the end of this meeting, the participant should be able to:

1. Recognize dry eye in different clinical situations and formulate clinical means to identify all causes
2. Foretell patients the logical plan in restoring comfort and health of the ocular surface
3. Appreciate new strategies in treating different causes of dry eye
4. Recognize ocular surface inflammation as a risk factor in pterygium formation, progression and recurrence
5. Formulate a unified surgical strategies to control inflammation in all pterygia
6. Base therapy of dry eye on the severity of the signs of ocular surface dryness.
7. Devise special strategies for primary, two-head, recurrent and multi-recurrent pterygia