APACRS 2024 in Chengdu capped off Day 2’s ophthalmic action with a climactic version of the annual film festival. The proverbial winner’s circle was dotted with repeat winners, including an invention out of Japan taking the cataract world by storm.
Prof. Graham Barrett (Australia) chaired the 36th Annual Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Association of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons’ (APACRS 2024) version of the Oscars, decked in a red tangzhuang along with Chief Judge Prof. Yao Ke (China) and fellow judges Profs. Sri Ganesh (India), Lee Mun Wai (Malaysia) and John Chang (Hong Kong).
This year’s jam-packed session established itself at the intersection of creativity, innovation and service to humanity. Esteemed winners and runners up in four categories represented six countries, from Europe to East Asia.
Breakthrough artificial capsular bag takes top prize
The story of the session belonged to the high degree of repeat winners, including the Grand Prize winner, Dr. Santaro Noguchi (Japan), and his ingenious artificial capsular bag innovation.
Dr. Noguchi’s video also won the Grand Prize at the Film Festival of the 2024 American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery’ Annual Meeting, and looks primed for more hardware in the coming year.
The artificial capsular bag, made of hydrophilic acrylic, is in a semicircular wing shape and includes a clip structure to hold the intraocular lens (IOL), ensuring that both the anterior and posterior capsules are exposed to aqueous flow.
Dr. Noguchi’s invention is designed to prevent adhesion and secondary cataract and derivative complications, including anterior and posterior capsule opacification.
Dr. Noguchi thanked his wife, fellow ophthalmologist Dr. Asuka Noguchi, in his acceptance speech. He was also a winner at the APACRS 2023 Film Festival, taking home the prize for the Cataract Complications/Challenging Cases category for his new technique for extracting dislocated IOLs.
From the Amazon rainforest to the operating room
Speaking of the Cataract Complications/Challenging Cases category, this year’s winner, Dr. Takashi Hida (Brazil) was honored for his work, IFIS and the Chamber of Secrets. His inspiring, beautifully shot video took the audience on a trip to some of the most remote parts of Brazil, where his work treating cataract patients among the indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest brought a startlingly high incidence (90%) of intraoperative floppy iris syndrome (IFIS) to light.
In the video, Dr. Hida described his journey alongside APACRS Board Officer Prof. Ronald Yeoh (Singapore) in uncovering the IFIS issue, the special novel techniques used to deal with Amazon IFIS hard cataracts, and potential links of IFIS rates to diet.
Dr. Sheetal Brar (India) also showcased the human element of ophthalmology in her Refractive/Corneal Surgery category winning video, Why My Patient is not Smiling After SMILE?, where she documented her journey unmasking psychologically damaging postoperative blurring after small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) surgery.
This was her unprecedented tenth consecutive APACRS Film Festival award, including two previous Grand Prizes.
Dr. Ishtiaque Anwar (Bangladesh) won the Cataract/Implant Surgery category on the back of some impressive narrative storytelling for his video, Block Them: Don’t Show Them the Way on iris prolapse during cataract surgery.
Aside from his impressive novel surgical technique, Dr. Anwar captivated the audience with impressive filmmaking craft, including a dream/nightmare motif sure to resonate with ophthalmic surgeons the world over.
Hometown hero Dr. Haiying Jin (China) rounded out the winners in the ultra-competitive General Interest category with his video, The Implantable Polypropylene Capsular Hooks—A Novel Technique for the Management of Subluxated Lenses.
Dr. Jin was welcomed to the stage with uproarious applause from the Chinese doctors in attendance, where he elaborated on his ingenious DIY method for making the eponymous capsular hooks.
GRAND PRIZE
Dr. Santaro Noguchi (Japan); “Breakthrough with Artificial Capsular Bag in Cataract Surgery”
CATARACT/IMPLANT SURGERY
Winner: Dr. Ishtiaque Anwar (Bangladesh); Block Them, Don’t Show Them the Way
Runner-up: Dr. Shail Vasavada (India); The Long and Short of It—Spotlight on the Clear Corneal Incision
CATARACT COMPLICATIONS/CHALLENGING CASES
Winner: Dr. Takashi Hida (Brazil); IFIS and the Chamber of Secrets
Runner-up: Dr. Xiangjia Zhu (China); Saving the Extreme High Myopia: Addition or Subtraction
REFRACTIVE/CORNEAL SURGERY
Winner: Dr. Sheetal Brar (India); Why My Patient is Not Smiling After SMILE?
Runner-up: Dr. Wei Chen (China); EndoArt® Implant to Treat DSAEK Failure
GENERAL INTEREST
Winner: Dr. Haiying Jin (China); The Implantable Polypropylene Capsular Hooks—A Novel Technique for the Management of Subluxated Lenses
Runner-up: Dr. Lucio Buratto (Italy); History and Evolution of the Refractive Cut in Lamellar Surgery: From Cryolathe to Femto Laser
Editor’s Note: Reporting for this event took place during the 36th Annual Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Association of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (APACRS 2024), held from May 30 to June 1, 2024 in Chengdu, China. The 36th APACRS annual meeting is jointly organized with the 24th CSCRS (Chinese Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery) annual meeting.