Nasal endoscopic surgery technology has gradually developed and involved into the diagnosis and treatment of nose-eye related disease for more than 20 years. With the improvement of anatomical studies on nose-eye, imaging diagnostic technology and surgical instruments, the accumulation of surgical clinical experience, as well as the increasing emergence of a large number of clinical and basic studies on endoscopic rhino-orbital related surgery, a well-established theoretical and practical system of endoscopic nose-eye surgery has gradually been formed. This article summarized the development of endoscopic rhino-orbital surgery, and the advantages and limitations of several major surgical methods. Also, the further research was prospected.
Horner syndrome is caused by damage of the oculosympathetic pathway. It is a common disorder characterized by ocular signs such as ptosis and miosis, and these signs usually indicate the occurrence of severe head, neck and chest diseases or surgical complications. We report a case of 49-year-old male patient who underwent parapharyngeal space tumor resection in the Department of otolaryngology. On postoperative day one, the patient presented right eyelid drooping, the right pupil constricted, and the absence of sweating on the right side of the face. After six months of follow-up, the above signs still presented and showed no significant change. T??he pathological assessment of the resected parapharyngeal space tumor demonstrated that it is the sympathetic trunk schwannoma, which is relatively rare in clinical practice.
Persistent fetal vasculature (PFV), also known as persistent hyperplastic primary vitreous (PHPV), is a congenital ocular anomaly, which is common in infants and young children. Due to most children have unilateral occurrence, insidious symptoms and are easily misdiagnosed as simple congenital cataract, the optimum time for treatment is often delayed. Therefore, correct diagnosis and appropriate treatment are particularly significant for the prognosis of PFV children’s visual function. A male child aged 6 years and 6 months with a diagnosis of combined PFV is reported, whose ocular features were congenital cataract and structural dislocation of macula.
Objective: To study the effect of short-term peripheral patching on binocular dominance in adult visual cortex. Methods: Monocular short-term peripheral patching was performed on each eye (24 eyes) of 12 normal adults. The patching was achieved by monocularly wearing a ring-shaped, translucent and plastic patch for 90 minutes. The patch could only transmit light, but not pattern, and there was a circular hole with a visual field of 10°–15°, so as to achieve peripheral patching. Participants completed the binocular rivalry task at baseline and 0–3, 3–6, 6–9, 9–12, 12–15, 30, 60 and 90 min after peripheral patching. The dominance duration of each eye and the number of dominance switches between eyes were recorded. The probability of perceiving stimulus of each eye was calculated in each time period. Each participant’s both left and right eyes performed peripheral patching one week apart. Results: Before patching, the dominance duration of the patched eye was not significantly different from the non-patched eye (92.78±6.33 s vs 87.22±6.23 s, P>0.05), which suggests that the eye dominance was balanced. At 0–3 min after the removal of the patch, the dominance duration of the patched eye was increased significantly (P<0.001), and this effect existed until 30 min after the removal of the patch (P<0.05). The dominance duration of the patched eye at post-60 min was not significantly different from the baseline (P=0.445). There was no significant difference in the dominance switches among baseline and each period after patching (P=0.064). After the removal of patch on the dominant eye, the amplitude of change in the dominance duration of the patched eye at 0–3 min was not significantly different from that after the removal of patch on the non-dominant eyes (P=0.835). Conclusion: Short-term peripheral patching can also change the binocular dominance in adults, and it has the potential to be applied in treatment of adult amblyopia. After the critical period for visual development, binocular vision function still retains plasticity.
Background: The ex vivo model represented by mouse retinal explants in culture is a useful experimental model to investigate the molecular mechanism involved in neurovascular diseases such as diabetic retinopathy (DR). It ensures an experimental overview with more complete respect to isolate cells and reduce problems in terms of accessibility and management with respect to in vivo model. In particular, it allows the evaluation of the relationship between retinal cells in response to the typical stressors involved in DR pathogenesis.
Methods: Ex vivo retinal fragments derived from 3- to 5-week-old C57BL/6J mice. In particular, after dissection, the retina is cut into 4 separate fragments and transferred onto inserts placed with ganglion cells up. Once in culture, the explants could be treated in stress conditions typical of DR. In particular, this study protocol describes the procedure for the preparation and the culture of retinal explants with specific metabolic stressors such as high glucose (HG), advanced glycation end product (AGE), and oxidative stress (OS). In the end, this paper provides the protocols to perform molecular analyses in order to evaluate the response of retinal explants to stress and/or neuroprotective treatments.
Discussion: The cultured retinal explants represent an ex vivo experimental model to investigate the molecular mechanisms involved in neurovascular diseases such as DR. Moreover, they could be useful to test the effect of neuroprotective compounds in response to metabolic stressors in a fewer time respect to an in vivo model. In conclusion, retinal explants in culture represent a valuable experimental model to conduct further studies to better understand the pathophysiology of DR.
Background: Retinal degeneration is a common feature of several retinal diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). In this respect, experimental models of photo-oxidative damage reproduce faithfully photoreceptor loss and many pathophysiological events involved in the activation of retinal cell degeneration. Therefore, such models represent a useful tool to study the mechanisms related to cell death. Their advantage consists in the possibility of modulating the severity of damage according to the needs of the experimenter. Indeed, bright light exposure could be regulated in both time and intensity to trigger a burst of apoptosis in photoreceptors, allowing the study of degenerative mechanisms in a controlled fashion, compared to the progressive and slower rate of death in other genetic models of photoreceptor degeneration.
Methods: Here, an exemplificative protocol of bright light exposure in albino rat is described, as well as the main outcomes in retinal function, photoreceptor death, oxidative stress, and inflammation, which characterize this model and reproduce the main features of retinal degeneration diseases.
Discussion: Models of photo-oxidative damage represent a useful tool to study the mechanisms responsible for photoreceptor degeneration. In this respect, it is important to adapt the exposure paradigm to the experimental needs, and the wide range of variables and limitations influencing the final outcomes should be considered to achieve proper results.
Trial Registration: None.
Background: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is considered as the most common reason for blindness in children, particularly in preterm infants. The disease is characterized by the dysregulation of angiogenic mechanisms due to preterm birth, leading ultimately to vascular abnormalities and pathological neovascularization (NV). Retinal detachment and vision loss could represent a concrete risk connected to the most severe forms of ROP, also characterized by inflammation and retinal cell death.
Methods: During the last decades, many animal models of oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) have been recognized as useful tools to study the mechanisms of disease, since they reproduce the hallmarks typical of human ROP. Indeed, modulation of retinal vascular development by exposure to different oxygen protocols is possible in these animals, reproducing the main pathological phenotypes of the disease. The easy quantification of abnormal NV and the possibility to perform electrophysiologic, histological and molecular analyses on these models, make OIR animals a fundamental instrument in studying the pathophysiology of ROP and the effects of novel treatments against the disease.
Discussion: Here, the most commonly used OIR protocols in rodents, such as mice and rats, are described as well as the main pathological outcomes typical of these models. Despite their limitations and variables which should be considered whilst using these models, OIR models display several characteristics which have also been confirmed in human patients, validating the usefulness of such animals in the pre-clinical research of ROP.
Background: Spontaneously resolved primary congenital glaucoma is rare and the mechanism remains unknown. Previous literature described the phenomenon of spontaneous resolution of primary congenital glaucoma, with no further reports on follow-up visits and visual development of patients. We report a case of unilateral spontaneously resolved primary congenital glaucoma at a 7-year follow-up visit and describe the differential development of axial length (AL) between affected eye and healthy eye.
Case Description: A 6-year-old boy firstly presented at Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center with expanded corneas and ruptures in Descemet’s membranes (Haab’s striae) and apparently thin retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) in the left eye (LE), but normal intraocular pressure (IOP) of both eyes without anti-glaucoma medications or surgeries. At 7-year follow-up, the IOPs of bilateral eyes were stable ranging from 8 to 11 mmHg. A cup to disc ratio and the RNFL was stable in the LE at the following visit. The AL increased almost 3 mm in the right eye (RE) but 1.5 mm in the LE. Without anti-glaucoma medications or surgeries, the primary congenital glaucoma was spontaneously resolved.
Conclusions: It may figure out the development and influence of the affected eye of the patient, including AL and refraction state with regular ophthalmic examination at periodic follow-up.
