One of the advantages of hurtling towards one’s dotage is being able to reflect on which scientific breakthroughs in eye care have now become established practice, and which have yet to achieve the heady heights that were predicted when they were first discussed decades ago. Myopia management and optical coherence tomography are good examples of the former, while this week’s news reminded me how far others have yet to go.
I can remember a lecture from my undergrad days, in the 1980s, where it was suggested that advances in gene therapy would allow the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa (RP) by the end of the 20th century.
This week saw positive results for the phase II stage trials of gene therapy using the gene CTx-PDE6b for treatment of RP caused by bi-allelic mutations in the PDE6B gene. The small cohort showed visual improvement with the introduced gene, but many further trials and widespread treatment are predicted for the future.
In the AMD CPD part 3 , there is a useful review of current treatments for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Again, I recall a workshop some 20 years ago where the ‘cold’ laser treatment of dry AMD was heralded as a major breakthrough.
While this has never materialised, I hope you agree that some of the latest drug interventions for dry AMD mentioned in the CPD feature show great promise.
And finally, how many of us were initially excited by the potential of virtual reality and electronic visual augmentation in helping people with sight loss? Issues of cost, robustness and, perhaps most significantly, of patient adaptability have certainly slowed down progress here.
That said, in other disciplines, such as pain management, the use of virtual reality has already shown great benefits to patients and I still believe replacement of field loss with a virtual signal is imminent. I can’t wait to try out the new Apple Vision Pro; just need to sell the car first.