EyeWorld Asia-Pacific June 2015 Issue

59 EWAP NEWS & OPINION June 2015 The 30th APAO Congress in conjunction with the 20th COS Congress Live reports from the 30th APAO Congress in conjunction with the 20th COS Congress, 1–4 April 2015, Guangzhou, China O pening Ceremony officially kicks off APAO meeting The 30th Asia- Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO) Congress in conjunction with the 20th Chinese Ophthalmological Society (COS) Congress officially opened with an Opening Ceremony that featured Chinese acrobatic performances, welcome addresses from society presidents and organizing members, and the presentation of a number of awards. Ningli Wang, MD , Beijing, Congress president and COS president, gave the first welcome address, followed by Rajvardhan Azad, MD , New Delhi, India, APAO president. Ling Luo, MD , CMA deputy secretary-general; Hugh Taylor, MD , Melbourne, Australia, International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO) president; Russell van Gelder, MD , Seattle, AAO president; and Guo Ying Li, MD , secretary-general of the Guangzhou Medical Association, a special guest at the session, also gave speeches. The ceremony concluded with the inauguration of and speech from the APAO incoming president, Dennis Lam, MD , Hong Kong. Ophthalmic Premier League back at APAO The Ophthalmic Premier League was back again at this year’s APAO meeting, with four teams competing in the video competition of management of cataract complications. D avid Chang, MD , Los Altos, Calif., and Amar Agarwal, MD , Chennai, India, were the chairs of the session. Dennis Lam, MD , Hong Kong, and Clement Tham, MD, Hong Kong, served as judges, with Marguerite McDonald, MD , Port Washington, NY, and Sujatha Mohan, MD , Chennai, India, as the match referees. Vineet Ratra, MD , Bangalore, India, and Rajvardhan Azad, MD , New Delhi, India, were the offside umpires. The Surgeless Sultan team was made up of Mohan Rajan, MD , Chennai, India, Ramamurthy Dandapani, MD , Bangalore, India, Chee Soon Phaik, MD , Singapore, and Marie-Jose Tassignon, MD , Antwerp, Belgium. The Chopping Conquerors team was made up of Abhay Vasavada, MD , Ahmedabad, India, Geoffrey Tabin, MD , Salt Lake City, Athiya Agarwal, MD , Chennai, India, and Kumar Doctor, MD , Mumbai, India. The Diffractive DareDevils team was made up of Mahipal Sachdev, MD , New Delhi, India, Richard Packard, MD , London, George Beiko, MD , Ontario, Canada, and Ravindran Ravilla, MD , Madurai, India. Finally, the Bursting Buccaneers team consisted of Chitra Ramamurthy, MD , Bangalore, India (filling in for Jorge Alio, MD , Alicante, Spain), Boris Malyugin, MD , Moscow, Arup Chakrabarti, MD , Trivandrum, India, and Sri Ganesh, MD , Bangalore, India. Dr. Tabin highlighted a case where he experienced complications when using a power chop technique. A lot of ophthalmology requires skill and technique, but sometimes you just need a little more power, he said. This is useful when you have a particularly hard cataract. Dr. Tabin did routine phaco in his case, but the cornea began to get dry, and he asked his resident to put water on the cornea. At this point in the case, he had already done a full power chop and chopped down to the retina. Unfortunately, the resident lost her balance and hit Dr. Tabin’s hand with the chopper. The first thing to remember, he said, is to remain calm. However, he lost the last nuclear fragments and the posterior capsule was open. You want to put viscoelastic into the anterior chamber to make sure there’s not more prolapse of the vitreous, he said. Following this, Dr. Tabin proceeded to do a bimanual vitrectomy. The power chop had been completed, and there was still a good anterior capsulorhexis, so he proceeded with the bimanual vitrectomy. Dr. Ramamurthy described a case she handled with a 32-year- old patient with a post traumatic subluxated cataract. She decided to use a femtosecond laser. “Femto cataract surgery is the definite way when you want that pristine capsulorhexis,” Dr. Ramamurthy said. Other topics discussed included YAG laser capsulotomy, traumatic cataracts, capsular fibrosis, and refractive lensectomy. Dr. Chee won for “Best Video,” while Dr. Beiko won “Best Entertainer.” The Bursting Buccaneers, who had dressed as the “Pirates of the Caribbean,” won for “Best Team.” Jose Rizal Medal Lecturer: ‘Glass no longer empty’ Among the medal lectures that the APAO awards its most outstanding members, the Jose Rizal medal, said Dennis Lam, MD, Hong Kong, incoming president of APAO, is “the most important one.” The honor of delivering this year’s Jose Rizal Medal Lecture went to Hugh Taylor, MD, Australia, current president of the International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO). In his Jose Rizal Medal Lecture, “The Global Issue of Vision Loss and What We Can Do About It,” Dr. Taylor reviewed the current state of global blindness, particularly in light of the Vision 2020 initiative. Going back a few years to 1994, Dr. Taylor said that 60% of global blindness was caused by cataracts and refractive errors; 15% was caused by conditions like trachoma, vitamin A deficiency, and onchocerciasis—conditions that needed to be addressed as public health issues more than strictly ophthalmological issues; 15% was caused by diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma—at the time considered more medical/ continued on page 60