Contact Lens Society Meeting 2017 - OCL Vision

Mr Mearza featured as an invited speaker at this year’s joint meeting of the Medical Contact Lens and Ocular Surface Association (MCLOSA) and the European Contact Lens Society of Ophthalmologists (ECLSO) in London. This was the 24th meeting of the MCLOSA and was in conjunction with its European Counterpart (ECLSO) who were meeting for the 47th time. The meeting this year was held at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel in London.

Mr Mearza presented on the management of irregular astigmatism in keratoconus using surgical options in the debate section with his counterpart, Dr Deborah Jacobs from the USA talking about the use of contact lenses.

The correct management is to exhaust the contact lens options and if the patient is truly contact lens intolerant then the surgical route is begun starting from the least to the most invasive treatment options.

For mild to moderate keratoconus, laser remodelling combined with cross-linking works well but for advanced cases, the only option is corneal transplantation.

Mr Mearza highlighted that partial thickness lamellar keratoplasty offers significant advantages over the full thickness procedure and should always be attempted first wherever possible when transplantation is the only remaining option.

Please see the keratoconus section for more information.