The Media MICE team is many things: multi-national, multi-talented and some of the most devilishly best dressers around, (as you’ll know from our real-world conference appearances). But did you know that we are also particularly keen on Japan? This is the second time this year we’ve focused on a conference hosted in virtual Japan anyways, the first being the Asia Cornea Society (ACS) scientific meeting.
Of course this year, we can’t actually be in Japan (or anywhere else but home) for the World Glaucoma e-Congress (WGC 2021), aptly themed Beyond Borders, but we can say with certainty that in the land of the rising sun, we have a rather large virtual presence, and so too does the WGC.
Running with a distinctly Japanese theme for this year’s event (and who could be opposed to the beautiful aesthetics and totally kawaii mascot) everything about one of the world’s most common and yet vexing eye conditions — glaucoma — was up for discussion. Running for a jam-packed four days, this promises to be one of the highlights of the ophthalmic calendar, and Day 1 did not disappoint.
The WGC online platform has so much content that it would probably take the entire Media MICE team several years to cover it all (Editor’s Note: I’m sure you could all do it in a year). Consider the numbers alone: According to the organizers, WGC 2021 has nearly 3,000 attendees, over 70 scientific sessions and hundreds of papers and abstracts. Starting with the Presidential Symposium — Normal Tension Glaucoma, and finishing the day with Tackling Africa’s Glaucoma Burden and New Ideas in Glaucoma, there was so much awesome content to consume.
Beating the Drums Beyond Borders and Boundaries
The opening ceremony was one of the most exciting we’ve seen and hats off to the organizers for putting on a real show. The opening ceremony began with a performance by a Japanese drum troupe, followed by several Japan-based ophthalmologists who welcomed the attendees to both the conference and hopefully, to the city of Kyoto someday, where the conference was originally slated to be held. Dr. Fabian Lerner, the Argentinian president of the World Glaucoma Association (WGA), spoke of his hope that Beyond Borders will bring together as many aspects of the ophthalmic community as possible, in hope of a speedy return to normality.
If you cast your mind back to around this time last year, you may remember we reported on the World Ophthalmology Congress (WOC 2020), which was originally slated to be held in Cape Town, South Africa. Therefore, you’ll forgive the Media MICE team for a little sentimentality as we enjoyed Tackling Africa’s Glaucoma Burden, an in-depth session on the disease and the issues it causes on the continent. Covering everything from the unique profile of African patients, to surgical techniques and the prevalence of the condition, the session is still available for viewing on the WGC’s virtual platform.
If you’ve been keeping up with PIE and CAKE magazines recently (and of course you have, you’re an incredibly intelligent and cultured person) then you’ll see that in our latest editions (soon to be released!), we cover some of the rare and remarkable diseases out there. We couldn’t resist following that theme during the WGC conference, and as you know, conferences mean posters. One, in particular, got our attention: Congenital Primary Aphakia — Useful Lessons to Learn, published by a group of researchers at the Advanced Eye Centre, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (Chandigarh, India).
Congenital primary aphakia is a rare condition resulting from aborted lens development and anterior segment maldevelopment. Three children were studied, including a one-year-old boy with anterior segment dysgenesis and buphthalmos, who developed phthisis bulbi postoperatively. The researchers concluded that clinicians should be vigilant for children presenting with hazy, silver-blue corneas, no appreciable limbus or anterior segment structures, raised intraocular pressure (IOP), and optic disc cupping.
Making Flaps and Inserting Needles
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Media MICE roving reporter story without some good old fashioned abstracts — and the posters section didn’t disappoint here either. A Different Surgical Approach For the Prevention of Ahmed Glaucoma Valve (AGV) Tube Exposure and Its Clinical Outcomes had some fantastic surgical photography. The study examined 26 eyes of 25 patients (mean age, 50.1 years; age range, 22-74 years; 9 females and 16 males) with refractory glaucoma who underwent AGV implantation surgery.
A 6.5 mm long, half-thickness scleral flap was created for AGV implantation and the extraocular part of the valve tube was mostly covered with a scleral flap. With a 23-gauge needle, the anterior chamber was entered under the scleral flap, 2 mm posteriorly to the limbus, and a needle tract was created. After surgery, mean IOP, which was 34.1 ± 7.5 mmHg preoperatively, decreased to 15.5 ± 3.9 mmHg, exhibiting an average reduction of 54%.
Posters are a long-time favorite of our team when we’re covering a conference, and so too are film festivals. We always appreciate high-quality footage of clinicians doing what they do best. Congenital Pupillary Block Glaucoma by Dr. Rashmi Krishnamurthy was an incredibly insightful highlight, showing highly educational footage of surgery on a young child with glaucoma.
There’s a lot more film to dig into — indeed, you’ll have more to gorge upon than at a Japanese food festival, so make sure you check them out as well as the other posters, abstracts and symposiums on the WGC’s virtual platform. Day 1 was a great start to what promises to be one of the standout events of the year, so make sure you join us tomorrow while we continue to cover Beyond Borders. In the meantime you know the drill: Drop by our websites and keep following us on social media for the coolest — and the greatest — in all things ocular.
Arigato, soshite ashita made!
