The annual meeting of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) will be held May 6-10 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. Like the AAO meeting, ASCRS can be overwhelming and very busy because it offers so many educational formats — symposia, courses, papers, wet labs, special sessions, posters, and films. However, ASCRS is the premier meeting for anterior segment surgeons and is a great opportunity to learn about cutting-edge technology for the subspecialties of cataract, refractive, cornea, and glaucoma. Here is an overview of its diverse offerings.
Sessions
ASCRS Opening General Session
The welcome session featuring the Presidents’ address by Drs. Robert Cionni (outgoing) and Kerry Solomon (incoming), honored guests, ASCRS Foundation update, Hall of Fame inductees, and Binkhorst Lecture “Predicting and Treating Corneal Ectasia” by Dr. Doyle Stulting.
Sunday Summit
A two-part morning program: ASCRS Lecture on Science, Medicine, and Technology, and 60-Minutes International Trends in Anterior Segment Surgery.
The 2016 Cataract Surgery Olympics
Teams from North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Europe/Middle East will compete in four events including cataract pentathlon, cataract marathon, cataract IOL gymnastics, and freestyle cataract surgery.
ASCRS Innovators General Session
Presentations on innovations in dry eye, glaucoma, anterior capsulotomy, and keratoconus followed by the Charles D. Kelman Innovator’s Lecture by Dr. Graham Barrett on reducing astigmatism at the time of cataract surgery.
Paper Sessions
These traditional paper presentations are offered on a wide variety of topics:
- Femtosecond Laser-Assisted Cataract Surgery
- Femtosecond Laser Limbal Relaxing Incisions
- Corneal Astigmatism
- Posterior Corneal Cylinder
- Intraoperative Aberrometry
- Digital Markers/Guidance/Capsulotomy
- Nuclear Disassembly
- Phaco Fluidics
- Complex Cataract Surgery
- Cataract Surgery Complications
- Capsular Tension Rings/Pupil Expansion
- Iris Suture
- Tissue Sealants
- Sequential Bilateral Cataract Surgery
- Pediatric Cataract Surgery
- IOLs (Toric, Multifocal, Trifocal, Extended Depth of Focus, Accommodating)
- IOL Delivery
- Piggyback IOLs
- Scleral Fixation
- IOL Power Calculations
- Phakic IOLs
- Corneal Inlays
- Scleral Implants/Ciliary Expansion
- PRK
- LASIK
- Topography-Guided LASIK
- SMILE
- Intracorneal Rings
- DSEK/DMEK/DALK/PK
- Keratoconus
- Crosslinking
- Corneal Repair and Keratoprosthesis
- Infectious Keratitis
- Dry Eye Diagnosis and Treatment
- Conjunctival Disease and Corneal Imaging
- MIGS
Symposia
Renowned experts moderate and speak at these popular presentations that cover a variety of interesting aspects of ophthalmology. The video symposia are annual favorites and tend to be the most interactive and well-attended symposia particularly those focusing on surgical complications and new technology.
This year’s topics include:
- Complicated and challenging cases in cataract surgery
- Challenging video cases for the young surgeon
- Intravitreal injections how what and why
- Management of complicated cases in cataract and refractive surgery
- Hot topics in cornea and external disease
- Survive or thrive in the modern healthcare environment
- Efficiency in the FDA process
- MIGS
- Bringing back LASIK
- Challenging refractive cases
- Corneal ectasia prevention and management
- Controversies in anterior segment surgery
Instructional Courses & Skills Transfer Labs
There is an enormous selection of courses and labs for attendees to refresh their knowledge base and/or learn and practice new surgical techniques. The topics are wide-ranging and include:
- Mastering femtosecond laser-assisted phacoemulsification
- Mastering subluxated cataracts and IOLs
- Phaco nightmares and worst case scenarios
- Complex cataract surgery videos
- Special cases in cataract
- Management of difficult cataracts and challenging situations
- My most challenging cataract video
- Femtosecond laser LRIs
- Manual sutureless cataract surgery
- ECCE endangered procedure
- Immediate sequential bilateral cataract surgery
- Office space cataract surgery
- Preparing for surgical missions
- Controversies in lens surgery
- Phaco fundamentals
- Advanced phaco
- Learning phaco chop
- Three ways of prechop
- Multifocal/toric multifocal/accommodating IOLs
- Optimizing toric IOL outcomes
- Consistently accurate IOL power calculations
- Less than perfect outcomes after uneventful cataract surgery
- Managing unhappy patients with premium IOLs
- IOL exchange
- Intraocular telescopic implants for AMD
- New pinhole intraocular implant for irregular astigmatism
- Cataract surgery with shallow ACD and narrow angle
- Pseudoexfoliation and the cataract surgeon
- Tackling posterior capsular rupture
- Anterior vitrectomy
- Use of CTR/CTS/capsule retractors
- Iris prostheses and repair techniques
- Iris suturing techniques
- Understanding OVDs
- Pediatric cataracts
- Preop pearls to prevent postop peril
- Dropless cataract surgery
- Better surgery through chemicals
- Preventing endophthalmitis and CME after phacoemulsification
- TASS
- New technologies in cataract and refractive surgery
- Achieving proper centration and alignment
- Astigmatism from basic to advanced
- Dysfunctional lens syndrome
- Corneal inlay complications
- Phakic IOLs present and future
- Refractive surgery nightmares
- Controversies in refractive surgery
- SMILE
- Corneal topographic analysis and anterior segment imaging pearls
- Complications of DSEK/DSAEK
- Endothelial keratoplasty video-based course
- DALK from basic to advanced
- DMEK simplified technique
- Collagen crosslinking
- Anterior segment reconstruction
- Surgical adhesives and amniotic membrane in ocular surgery
- MIGS
- Trabeculectomies and tube shunts for the comprehensive ophthalmologist
- Neurotoxins and dermal fillers/collagen stimulators
- ERG and VEP in ophthalmic practice
- Clinical ophthalmic research
- Ethical issues in practice management
- Financial benchmarking
- Selling your practice
- Solo practice in 2016
- New associate employment contracts
- Refractive marketing
- Legislative and regulatory update
- New ASCRS/AAO co-management guidelines
- Hot topics in medical malpractice
- Medicolegal issues in refractive and cataract surgery
- Hallmarks of practice excellence.
A comprehensive list is available in the final program, which is accessible online at the ASCRS website.
The exhibit hall also offers many opportunities to learn about the latest and greatest ophthalmic products. Among the more popular technologies are corneal inlays, EDF IOLs, corneal collagen cross-linking (recently FDA approved), and glaucoma microstents.
In next month’s article I will review the highlight of the meeting. In the meantime, I hope those of you attending ASCRS have a productive meeting and take time to enjoy some of the attractions and wonderful food in New Orleans!