A packed programme

From 22 to 26 September, the 36th congress of the ESCRS takes places in Vienna. The ESCRS meeting is always a highlight on the calendar of ophthalmologists across Europe. And this year, the meeting is bundled with EuCornea and EURETINA, making beautiful Vienna the place to be this September. The ESCRS programme is as packed and intense as usual. Some of the biggest attractions of the event are the main symposia. There are six main symposia spread out over the conference. As these sessions fill up quickly and often offer standing room only, it is best to come early. Here is a brief teaser of what to expect from the main symposia this September: Corneal cross-linking On Saturday morning, Roberto Bellucci and EuCornea President Elect Jesper Hjortdal will be chairing a session about the state of the art of corneal cross-linking. If you are looking to integrate CXL safely into your refractive practice, you will not want to miss this. The session will cover everything from the basics of biomechanics to the newest cross-linking approaches. Laser surgery in ectatic conditions can be challenging and part of this session will cover strategies to combine cross-linking with LASIK and keratoconus so you can safely expand your laser practice and improve your management of complex corneal diseases. What to do, how to do it and when. All secrets will be revealed. The diabetic eye On Saturday afternoon, ESCRS President Béatrice Cochener and EURETINA President Sebastian Wolf will team up for a joint symposium on the diabetic eye. The ageing population means that we will all be seeing more diabetic patients in our clinics and we need to adapt our approach. This session will provide a refresher course in the newest concepts and treatments in diabetes and then move on to the practical. Expert advice on timing your surgery, preparing your patient and managing complications to the newest evidence-based guidelines will help all of us get the best out of these cases. Glaucoma for the cataract surgeon On Sunday morning, Simonetta Morselli and David Spalton host a session on glaucoma. With the newer minimally invasive glaucoma surgery techniques, more and more of us cataract surgeons are expanding our practice into glaucoma treatment. This session will dive into the new imaging techniques, drugs and surgical approaches such as intracanalicular, suprachoroidal and subconjunctival devices. It’s not all about the new and novel though, as they will also present the case for the tried and trusted trabeculectomy, which still plays a key role in glaucoma surgery. Extending depth of focus On Monday morning, Michael Amon and Thomas Kohnen will chair a session to tackle the next generation of presbyopia corrections. The session begins with the basics of lens optics and how IOLs perform on the optical bench. It then moves on to the practical, covering extended depth of focus lenses as well as novel technologies that could make it to the clinic soon. While most of this symposium will cover advanced multifocal techniques, the humble monovision will also make an appearance. Refractive surgery for high ametropia The main symposium on Tuesday morning will cover some of the trickiest refractive patients that we see; the high ammetropes. Alex Day and José Güell will cover the problem of treating outliers in our practice. The session starts by defining our optical and anatomical limits to keep our surgeries within a safe zone. Then refractive laser surgery for the high myope will be covered. Which laser is best? Smile, LASIK or RPK? Then intraocular surgery in long eyes and short eyes will be covered, each with their specific risks and complications. The session concludes with a review of high astigmatism correction. Everything you need to treat the edge cases. The enigma of pseudoexfoliation The final major symposium, on Wednesday morning, will cover a common condition complicating cataract surgery, pseudoexfoliation. The session begins with a basic overview, covers epidemiology and genetics, and then moves on to intraoperative complications. But pseudoexfoliation not only complicates the primary surgery but can also cause serious lens luxations many years later. These can be complex, difficult to manage and ask more of the anterior segment surgery. In this symposium, experts in lens fixation will describe their approaches to lens suspensions, to rescue patients when the lens falls. Sorcha Ní Dhubhghaill MB PhD MRCSI(Ophth) FEBO. Anterior Segment Ophthalmic Surgeon, Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Antwerp, Belgium