AGGRESSIVE TREATMENT OF EALES’ DISEASE MAY BE APPROPRIATE

In 1880 Henry Eales described the syndrome of recurrent retinal and vitreous haemorrhage in young men. Eales’ disease is an idiopathic inflammatory venous occlusion that primarily affects the peripheral retina. The inflammation induced vascular occlusion can lead to a proliferative vascular retinopathy. El-Asrar and coworkers describe a retrospective study of 30 patients treated for Eales’ disease. Their study suggests that aggressive treatment of Eales’ disease with systemic steroids and antituberculous therapy, panretinal photocoagulation, and early vitrectomy may result in improved anatomical and visual outcomes in these patients.

See p 1248

HOW EFFECTIVE IS OPHTHALMIC SCREENING IN DETECTING DIGOXIN TOXICITY?

Ophthalmologists are routinely asked to examine patients taking drugs known to have ocular side effects. In some cases these examinations are clearly not cost effective—for example, in the case of patients on …