Glaucoma and Telemedicine.

PRCIS: Teleglaucoma is the future, but there is a need for clearer regulation by government agencies and medical entities, as well as for studies to further demonstrate the cost-effectiveness and safety of teleglaucoma strategies at a global scale. ABSTRACT: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic drastically impacted global health, forcing institutions to provide alternative models of safe and reliable health care. In this context, telemedicine has been successfully used to overcome distance barriers and improve access to medical services. Teleglaucoma is the application of telemedicine to screen and monitor glaucoma, a chronic and progressive optic neuropathy. Teleglaucoma screening aims to detect the disease at an earlier stage, especially in high-risk populations and underserved areas, also identifying patients who require more urgent treatment. Teleglaucoma monitoring seeks to provide remote management through virtual clinics, where classic in-person visits are replaced by synchronous data collection (clinical measurements) performed by non-ophthalmologists and asynchronous review (decision-making) by ophthalmologists. This may be employed for low-risk patients with early disease, improving health care logistics, reducing the number of face-to-face consultations, and saving time and costs. New technologies may also allow home monitoring of patients in teleglaucoma programs, with the addition of artificial intelligence methods, which are expected to increase the accuracy of remote glaucoma screening/monitoring and support clinical decision-making. However, for the incorporation of teleglaucoma into clinical practice, a complex system for collection, transfer, flow, and interpretation of data is still necessary, in addition to clearer regulatory markers by government agencies and medical entities.

Ocular inflammatory events following COVID-19 vaccination: a multinational case series.

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination are being reported amidst the growing concerns regarding vaccine's immunogenicity and safety, especially in patients with pre-existing inflammatory conditions. METHODS: Multinational case series of patients diagnosed with an ocular inflammatory event within 14 days following COVID-19 vaccination collected from 40 centres over a 3 month period in 2021. RESULTS: Seventy patients presented with ocular inflammatory events within 14 days following COVID-19 vaccination. The mean age was 51 years (range, 19-84 years). The most common events were anterior uveitis (n = 41, 58.6%), followed by posterior uveitis (n = 9, 12.9%) and scleritis (n = 7, 10.0%). The mean time to event was 5 days and 6 days (range, 1-14 days) after the first and second dose of vaccine, respectively. Among all patients, 36 (54.1%) had a previous history of ocular inflammatory event. Most patients (n = 48, 68.6%) were managed with topical corticosteroids. Final vision was not affected in 65 (92.9%), whereas 2 (2.9%) and 3 (4.3%) had reduction in visual acuity reduced by ≤3 lines and > 3 lines, respectively. Reported complications included nummular corneal lesions (n = 1, 1.4%), cystoid macular oedema (n = 2, 2.9%) and macular scarring (n = 2, 2.9%). CONCLUSION: Ocular inflammatory events may occur after COVID-19 vaccination. The findings are based on a temporal association that does not prove causality. Even in the possibility of a causal association, most of the events were mild and had a good visual outcome.

SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 for the ophthalmologist.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on ophthalmology. This review compiles general aspects of the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, further dissects the most recent data on the role of the eye regarding disease transmission and manifestations, and summarizes preventive measures in the particular context of eye care.