Variations on a theme

A wide range of topics and mix of research and education sessions proved a successful formula for the BCLA’s 2006 conference. In the first of two reports, Bill Harvey looks at what this year had to offer

Special sessions on public health and ocular risks, the latest silicone hydrogel lenses and a debate on the oxygen needs of the cornea were among the highlights of the BCLA’s annual Clinical Conference and Exhibition, held in Birmingham last month.

More than 900 delegates and around 1,200 visitors in total attended this year, with four out of 10 from overseas.  

‘Orthokeratology….old devil or new saint?’ was the provocative title for the opening lecture on Thursday evening by Professor Dwight Cavanagh (Texas) and Professor Brien Holden (Sydney).

For Cavanagh, the question that lay at the heart of the current renaissance of ortho-K was: ‘What justifies the increased risk to benefit ratio of overnight wear?’ The ultimate benefit, he said, would be to prevent the progression of childhood myopia.

This potential benefit was so large that a randomised, prospective, masked clinical trial of ortho-K in children was justified, despite the possible increased risk of microbial keratitis. The best trial would be to measure the ortho-K effect in one eye against an alignment fit RGP lens of the same polymer in the other, he said.

Cavanagh’s assessment was that the future for ortho-K lay with very high Dk rigid lenses but Holden reported that soft ortho-K lenses would be more comfortable, better accepted by patients and offer better centration than RGPs. As to other approaches to controlling myopia, Holden coined the term ‘anti-myopic spectacles’ that would focus light on the peripheral as well as central retina and influence refractive development.