[Firework injuries in the south-western region of the Netherlands around the turn of the year 2017-2018]. / Vuurwerkletsel in Zuidwest-Nederland.

OBJECTIVE: To report the number of patients with firework-related injuries treated in December 2017 and January 2018 in a hospital in the south-west Netherlands trauma region, and to provide details about the types of firework used and the specific injuries. DESIGN: A prospective multicentre cohort study (NTR6793). METHODS: Patients of all ages with firework-related injuries were eligible for inclusion. The injury had to have been sustained between 1 December 2017 and 31 January 2018, and treated at a hospital in the south-west Netherlands trauma region (approximately 2.5 million inhabitants). Data were extracted from patients' medical files and additional information was obtained from patient interviews. RESULTS: Fifty-four patients were included. The majority were male (93%) and the median age was 15 years. Twenty-five (46%) patients were bystanders and 12 (22%) were injured by illegal fireworks. Fifty patients were injured by bangers (n=22) or decorative fireworks (n=28). The patients had a total of 79 injuries, of which 29 (37%) were localised to the upper extremity and 19 (24%) to the eyes. Most upper extremity injuries were burns (69%), primarily partial thickness. Of the eye injuries, 14 were caused by blunt trauma, seven by chemical trauma, and one by penetrating trauma. Three patients sustained indirect firework-related injuries. CONCLUSION: Between 1 December 2017 and 31 January 2018 in the south-west Netherlands trauma region mainly teenage males and bystanders sustained firework-related injuries. Most injuries were upper extremity burns and eye injuries, mainly due to legal fireworks and bangers or decorative fireworks. The extent of the sample indicates that the study findings can be extrapolated to the rest of the Netherlands.

[Social awareness campaign for a ban on consumer fireworks: 10 tips; doctor on the barricade]. / Maatschappelijke actie voor een verbod op consumentenvuurwerk: 10 tips.

- Describe the problem, and show why a social awareness campaign is needed- Know what you are talking about, and explain the medical jargon in plain language- Collect data and facts- Create support among colleagues- Get the media involved- Get support from the community- Create a coalition of supporters via a website- You will discover who the opposition is when you are on the barricade- Offer a safe and healthy alternative - Draw up a long-term roadmap, and persevere.

Accessory Extraocular Muscle as a Cause of Restrictive Strabismus.

Restrictive strabismus resulting from the presence of an accessory extraocular muscle has rarely been reported in the literature. Most articles written on this topic are isolated case reports. The purpose of this paper is to describe a series of 7 similar patients presenting with atypical restrictive strabismus associated with enophthalmos in the affected eye, which was found to be caused by an accessory extraocular muscle attached to the posterior globe near the optic nerve. The medical records of 7 patients who shared these clinical characteristics were retrospectively analyzed. Orbital imaging was obtained in the 7 cases, which were compared. Three of the patients were females and four were males. The left eye was affected in all 4 males and the right eye was affected in the 3 females. The 7 patients presented with the following clinical characteristics: enophthalmos, restriction to eye movements in most fields of gaze, and presence of an anomalous orbital structure that was interpreted on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to be an accessory extraocular muscle inserting onto the posterior surface of the globe in the affected eye. The fellow eye was normal in all cases. Five of the 7 patients underwent surgical correction with partial improvement in only one patient. The presence of an accessory extraocular muscle should be included in the differential diagnosis of patients with atypical restrictive strabismus. Orbital computed tomography or MRI are essential for correct diagnosis in these cases.

Orienting responses to various visual stimuli in children with visual processing impairments or infantile nystagmus syndrome.

Quantification of orienting responses can be used to differentiate between children with cerebral visual impairment and infantile nystagmus syndrome. To further improve the sensitivity of this method, we compared orienting responses to a Cartoon stimulus, which contains all sorts of visual information, to stimuli that contain only Contrast, Form coherence, Motion coherence, Color and Motion detection. The stimuli were shown on an eye tracker monitor using a preferential looking paradigm. We found that both groups of children showed general slowing in orienting responses compared to controls. The children with cerebral visual impairment had significantly prolonged responses to Cartoon compared to the children with nystagmus, whereas the children with nystagmus had prolonged responses to Motion detection and larger fixation areas. Previously reported differences in orienting responses to Cartoon were replicated. Application of specific visual information did not alter the sensitivity of the method to distinguish between children with visual processing deficits.

[Strabismus correction as an alternative treatment to evisceration and enucleation for artificial eye prosthesis intolerance in atrophic eyes]. / Schielkorrektur als Alternativbehandlung zu Eviszeration und Enukleation bei Intoleranz gegenüber Augenprothesen auf phthitischen Augen.

We report on two patients, each with an atrophic blind eye who underwent strabismus correction as an alternative treatment of artificial eye prosthesis intolerance. Both patients had acquired intolerance of their prostheses, which could not be adjusted by the ocularist. The intolerance was assumed to result from focal corneal pressure by the prosthesis, related to progressive exotropia and hypertropia. This led to irritation and pain in both patients, and to focal corneal staining in one. Both patients underwent retropositioning of the external and superior rectus muscles of the left eye. At 4 weeks and 13 months postoperatively, they were free of symptoms while wearing the original artificial eye prosthesis.

Baerveldt glaucoma implant in paediatric patients.

AIM: To evaluate the Baerveldt glaucoma implant (BGI) in paediatric glaucoma treatment. METHODS: In a retrospective non-comparative case series 55 eyes of 40 consecutive paediatric patients (< or =16 years) with primary or secondary glaucoma underwent Baerveldt (350 mm2) implantation. Surgical outcome was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier table analysis. RESULTS: The overall success rate was 80% at last follow up, with a mean follow up of 32 (range 2-78) months. Cumulative success was 94% at 12 months and 24 months, 85% at 36 months, 78% at 48 months, and 44% at 60 months. 11 eyes (20%) failed postoperatively because of an IOP >21 mm Hg (eight eyes), persistent hypotony (two eyes), and choroidal haemorrhage following cataract surgery (one eye). The most frequent complication needing surgery was tube related (20%). A new observation was mild to moderate dyscoria in 22% of the eyes, all buphthalmic, caused by entrapment of a tuft of peripheral iris in the tube track. CONCLUSIONS: The BGI is effective and safe in the management of primary and secondary glaucoma. When angle surgery has proved to be unsuccessful or inappropriate in paediatric patients, a BGI is a good treatment option. One must be prepared to deal with the tube related problems.

Cyclic esotropia and the treatment of over-elevation in adduction and V-pattern.

AIM: To describe the development and treatment of V-pattern and bilateral over-elevation in adduction in patients with cyclic esotropia. METHODS: Three patients with cyclic esotropia are described in retrospect. All patients underwent bilateral medial recession, while one patient additionally had a weakening procedure of both inferior oblique muscles. RESULTS: All patients developed a V-pattern and bilateral over-elevation in adduction. After strabismus surgery, normal eye alignment with some signs of binocularity was reached in all three patients. Moreover, the over-elevation in adduction and V-pattern completely resolved. CONCLUSIONS: V-pattern and bilateral over-elevation in adduction was seen in all patients with cyclic esotropia in the stage that fusion was disrupted. Possible explanations for the origin of these patterns are discussed. Strabismus surgery aimed to correct the horizontal esotropic angle restored fusion and eliminated the vertical incommitancies in lateral gaze, and the V-pattern.

Cataract surgery with foldable intraocular lens implants in captive lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla).

Two juvenile, male, captive-born lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) with the same father but different mothers developed bilateral cataracts. The cataracts were surgically removed within 6 yr and 3 mo, respectively, of diagnosis, and foldable intraocular lenses were implanted. Although vision was not restored in one eye with a mature, 6-yr-old cataract in gorilla A, surgical intervention on the other eye was performed before a complete cataract developed, and vision was fully restored. Gorilla B was treated at the age of 17 mo, and normal visual development proceeded in both eyes. This animal developed bilateral after-cataract and therefore needed a second intervention in both eyes using Nd:YAG laser treatment. The genetic component of juvenile cataracts should be considered in breeding management programs.

The polaroid suppression test in a pediatric population with ophthalmologic disorders.

PURPOSE: The Polaroid suppression test (PST) is a new method for early detection of amblyogenic factors by screening for suppression. The apparatus can elicit suppression with the use of Polaroid filters. The aim of the present study was to examine a population of children with known ophthalmologic disorders using the PST to determine the rate of false-negative results of the PST. METHODS: Six hundred four children, varying in age between 3 and 15 years (mean, 7.9) were examined using the PST. Ophthalmologic disorders ranged from strabismus and amblyopia to refractive disorders. RESULTS: Mean testing time for the PST was 43 seconds. The PST could not be administered to 34 children (5.6%); 443 children (73.3%) had abnormal results; and 127 children (22.2%) showed no suppression. The suppression in constant strabismus was detected in almost all cases. The sensitivity for accommodative forms of strabismus was lower, but amblyopia was never missed in these cases. In children with normal eye alignment, only 2.7% with an interocular acuity difference of more than 0.1 logMAR had no suppression. Of all 119 children with clinical defined amblyopia, only 1 (0.8%) did not have suppression. Overall sensitivity of the PST for strabismus and/or abnormal interocular acuity difference was 96.2% and specificity was 41.1%. CONCLUSIONS: The PST has great potential as a visual screening tool in young children. Only few children with amblyogenic factors were missed. Thus, the test can differentiate those children at risk for amblyopia from normally sighted children. Because specificity is lower, all children showing suppression with the PST in a screening situation should have further examination by the health care worker before being referred to the ophthalmologist.

Saccadic binocular coordination in alternating exotropia.

We studied the coordination of binocular eye movements in human subjects with alternating exotropia (divergent strabismus). Binocular saccades were recorded in six subjects during binocular and monocular viewing. Subjects were instructed to make saccades between two continuously lit targets (LED's) presented in an isovergence array (with the straight-ahead target 130 cm from the eyes) in a dimly lit room. For saccades up to 20 degrees amplitude, there were no large differences in the dynamics of the saccades between control and exotropic subjects. However, for larger amplitudes subjects frequently alternated the eye of fixation during saccades. That is, subjects fixated the left target with the left eye and the right target with the right eye. The alternation in eye fixation at the end of the saccade was taken into account in the programming of the saccades. The amplitudes of the alternating saccades were approximately equal to the target amplitude minus the strabismus angle. We conclude that for those saccades where alternation occurs, there is not only a change in the eye of fixation, but also a change in the target representation provided by either eye. Thus, in this group of strabismic patients, saccades may be programmed in a retina-centered coordinate system, if we assume that for making a saccade to a new target in the contralateral visual field its representation on the temporal retinal field of the currently fixating eye is suppressed and the retinotopic target information is derived from the non-fixating eye. In executing the saccade, the non-fixating eye automatically becomes the fixating eye.

Retinal nerve fiber layer thickness in human strabismic amblyopia.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Amblyopia is characterized by histopathological changes in the visual cortex and lateral geniculate nucleus. In the retina, however, no abnormalities have yet been reported. The purpose of this study was to compare the nerve fiber layer (NFL) thickness in the amblyopic eye with that in the sound eye of patients with strabismic amblyopia. As a practical implication, we investigated the validity of comparing Nerve Fiber Analyzer (NFA) measurements obtained in amblyopic eyes to the normative database built into the NFA. METHODS: NFL thickness was measured with a third generation NFA, the GDx (Laser Diagnostic Technologies, San Diego, CA). This is a scanning laser polarimeter, designed for monitoring glaucoma. The following NFL thickness parameters (all in microns) were compared: average thickness, superior maximum, inferior maximum, superior average, inferior average, nasal median and temporal median. Twenty patients with strabismic amblyopia were imaged with the NFA. Patients had no nystagmus, neurological disease or glaucoma. Nine patients had amblyopia in the right eye, and 11 patients in the left eye. RESULTS: In general, the sound eyes yielded higher thickness measures than the amblyopic eyes. These differences, however, were small, averaging only 1.5%, p = 0.6, and therefore not "statistically significant" at the p&le 0.05 level. CONCLUSIONS: Using the standard of "Statistical Significance = p< or =0.05", when amblyopic eyes are measured with the NFA, the built-in normative database may serve as the reference data

Bilateral idiopathic Brown's syndrome with delayed onset in the second eye.

PURPOSE: We describe 6 cases of a previously unreported variation of bilateral Brown's syndrome that presented in congenital form in one eye and developed later in the fellow eye with no underlying cause. METHODS: We reviewed the clinical records of 6 patients from 6 separate practices to determine whether there were any common clinical features on presentation or in their clinical courses. RESULTS: All 6 patients were diagnosed with unilateral congenital Brown's syndrome at the first ophthalmologic assessment but showed no evidence of the syndrome in the fellow eye. In 5 cases the contralateral syndrome developed in the second eye after surgery was performed on the first eye, and in 1 case it developed before any surgery was done. The ages at onset of the syndrome in the second eye ranged from 2 to 8 years. None of the children had any evidence of systemic illness or local orbital disease to explain an acquired Brown's syndrome. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first reported series of cases of bilateral Brown's syndrome that manifested sequentially in the eyes with no known causes for an acquired syndrome in the second eye. This finding supports the premise that congenital and acquired Brown's syndrome are on a continuum with a common pathophysiology of restriction of free movement of the superior oblique tendon in the trochlea.

Neuro-ophthalmologic manifestations of systemic disease and neurologic disease.

Neuro-ophthalmology is a difficult and challenging field for ophthalmologists, orthoptists, and neurologists. Unfortunately, signs and symptoms of these patients can be very subtle and easily overlooked. Although neuro-ophthalmologic cases are rare in the practice of a general ophthalmologist, missing the diagnosis can have severe impact on the patient's health. The authors review last year's publications of neuro-ophthalmologic manifestations of systemic and neurologic disease.

Comitant strabismus.

This year's review of the literature on comitant strabismus is presented. The main problems in treating strabismus disorders are accurately diagnosing the condition and designing effective treatment plans. A better understanding of the underlying motility disorder facilitates a better treatment outcome. Several of this year's papers address the better detection and identification of comitant strabismus. Some patients with comitant exotropia and esotropia, however, have superimposed incomitant motility patterns such as dissociated vertical deviation. New insights into the possible etiology of dissociated vertical deviation have emerged through use of the sophisticated scleral search coil technique, which permits the discovery of minute motility changes not visible to the clinician's eye. The same technique was used to clarify the traditional clinical experience that convergence insufficiency can improve with convergence exercises.

Gaze-shift dynamics in subjects with and without symptoms of convergence insufficiency: influence of monocular preference and the effect of training.

We studied gaze-shift dynamics during several gaze-shift tasks and during reading, in five subjects with convergence insufficiency (C.I., a diminished ability to converge), and in ten subjects without C.I. Furthermore, we studied the effect of vergence training in order to verify previous claims that orthoptic exercises can improve vergence performance. We recorded binocular eye movements with the scleral coil technique. Subjects switched fixation between nearby and distant light emitting diodes (LEDs) arranged in isovergence arrays (distances 35 and 130 cm) in a dimly lit room. In both the C.I. and non-C.I. group, two classes of subjects occurred: vergence responders and saccadic responders. During pure vergence tasks, saccadic responders made saccades with no or little vergence; vergence responders made vergence movements with no or small saccadic components. In saccadic responders, fixation of nearby targets was monocular. Subjects with a preferred eye, according to our determination, used the preferred eye. The five C.I. subjects showed idiosyncratic responses with insufficient vergence during most trials. They all had a tendency to alternate fixation between the left and right eye. Vergence-version tasks always elicited larger vergence components than pure vergence tasks. During a reading task, vergence angles were more accurate than during gaze-shifts between LEDs. After the pre-training sessions, nine subjects (one of which had C.I.) practised a pure vergence task three times a day for at least 2 weeks. Vergence amplitudes of four of these subjects were larger after training. We conclude that vergence training can change oculomotor performance. Although C.I. is often associated with abnormal vergence dynamics, there are no typical C.I. vergence dynamics. Unstable monocular preferences may play a role in the aetiology of C.I.

Neuro-ophthalmologic manifestations of systemic and neurologic disease.

Neuro-ophthalmology is a difficult and challenging field for both ophthalmologists and neurologists. Unfortunately, signs and symptoms of these patients can be very subtle and easily overlooked. Although neuro-ophthalmologic cases are rare in the practice of a general ophthalmologist, missing the diagnosis can have a severe impact on the patient's health. This paper reviews last year's publications on neuro-ophthalmologic manifestations of systemic and neurologic disease.

Neuro-ophthalmologic manifestations of systemic disease and neurologic disease.

Neuro-ophthalmology is a difficult and challenging field for both ophthalmologists and neurologists. Unfortunately, signs and symptoms of these patients can be very subtle and easily overlooked. Although neuro-ophthalmologic cases are rare in the practice of a general ophthalmologist, missing the diagnosis can have a severe impact on the patient's health. This paper reviews the past year's publications of neuro-ophthalmologic manifestations of systemic and neurologic disease.

Amblyopia.

New knowledge of the pathophysiology of amblyopia has evolved through animal research over the past 30 years. We now know that development and treatment of amblyopia have a critical and sensitive period. After more than a millennium, patching of the dominant eye remains the cornerstone of amblyopia treatment, and compliance plays an important role in its effectiveness. Compliance can now be measured objectively with an occlusion monitoring device. The first successful attempts have been made to pharmacologically influence the plasticity of the human visual system.