World Ophthalmology Conference November 24-25, 2016 Melbourne, Australia

The lacrimal system is made up of the lacrimal gland that produces tears, and the “duct” that drains tears from the eye into the nose. The most common symptoms of lacrimal system problems are excess tearing (to the point that tears might run down the face) and mucous discharge. Having a plugged tear duct can lead to more serious issues than tears spilling over the eyelids and running down the face. Stagnant tears within the system can become infected and cause recurrent red eyes and infections. Excessive tearing can also produce secondary skin changes on the lower eyelids.

The cornea is the transparent, clear layer at the front and center of the eye. In fact, the cornea is so clear that one may not even realize it is there. The cornea is located just in front of the iris, which is the colored part of the eye. The main purpose of the cornea is to help focus light as it enters the eye. If one wears contact lenses, the contact lens rests on the cornea.

Glaucoma is a multifactorial optic neuropathy that affects more than 50 million people and is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide. The role of intra ocular pressure (IOP) has been well documented as a major modifiable risk factor for glaucoma. Additionally, many glaucoma patients have a relatively low IOP, while some healthy individuals have a relatively high IOP. The disorders can be roughly divided into two main categories, open-angle glaucoma and closed-angle glaucoma. Impaired ocular blood flow regulation in open angle glaucoma as a risk of glaucoma has also been well established, especially over the past two decades. Pathophysiology of glaucoma indicates towards the increased in intraocular pressure which compresses and damages the optic nerve. Once the optic nerve is damaged, it fails to carry visual information to the brain and this result in loss of vision. Glaucoma accounts for over 10 million visits to physicians each year. In terms of Social Security benefits, lost income tax revenues, and health care expenditures, the cost to the U.S. government is estimated to be over $1.5 billion annually.

The research trend discoveries maximize the opportunities to investigate the issues very minutely to decrease the risk of failure especially during surgical procedure like cataract and refractive surgery. The American Health Assistance Foundation, dedicated to eradicating age-related degenerative diseases, estimates that up to 11 million people in the United States have some form of AMD - a number expected to double by 2050. Estimates of the global cost of visual impairment AMD causes are $343 billion, including $255 billion in direct health care costs, according to the foundation. Ophthalmology represents 18 percent of the average case volume in surgery centers, second behind GI/endoscopy (25 percent). The average surgery center performs 4,869 cases annually, which would average to around 876 ophthalmology cases annually, according to VMG Health's 2009 Intellimarker.

Many of the viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi that can invade the human body are also capable of attacking the surface or interior of the eye. The natural tendency for immunologic disease to affect the eye derives from a number of factors such as Antibody-dependent & antibody-mediated diseases, Uveitis, intraocular inflammation and cell-mediated diseases. The immune system plays a critical role during transplantation and as the corneal transplantation has become increasingly common since the 1960s and over 40,000 transplants were performed in 1990 in the United States and Canada. The 5-year failure rate for corneal grafts is approximately 35%; corneal graft rejection is the most common cause of graft failure in the late postoperative period but with the recent development in immunotherapy can be a breakthrough to overcome from all the limitations of the conventional procedures. The microbiological infection such as fungal endophthalmitis can affect the vitreous and anterior chamber of the eye and hence the uses of antibiotic in ocular infections have been increased to overcome these conditions. The consumables, equipment and technology markets in the microbiology industry totaled nearly $7.7 billion in 2012. This total is expected to grow from $8.5 billion in 2013 to $11.4 billion in 2018, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.1% for the five-year period, 2013 to 2018.

Vision science is a term used to encompass all studies of vision, such as how human and non-human organisms process visual information, how conscious visual perception works in humans, how to exploit visual perception for effective communication, and how artificial systems can do the same tasks.

Ophthalmology is developing now a day in large wide which results in establishment of novel approaches in ophthalmology. This includes many novel methods like Ocular drug delivery in which many techniques have evolved to deliver drugs in eye. Retinoblastoma chemotherapy is the other novel technique to cure retinoblastoma which is a cancer that starts in the retina, the very back part of the eye. It is the most common type of eye cancer. Chemotherapy (chemo) is the use of anti-cancer drugs to treat retinoblastoma. Intra-arterial chemotherapy, A newer approach sometimes used instead of systemic chemotherapy is to inject chemo directly into the ophthalmic artery, the main artery that supplies blood to the eye. In this technique, a very thin catheter (a long, hollow, flexible tube) is inserted into a large artery on the inner thigh and slowly threaded through the blood vessels all the way up into the ophthalmic artery. (This is done with the child asleep under general anesthesia.) The chemo is then infused into the artery. The drug used most often is melphalan, but other drugs such as carboplatin and topotecan can also be used. This process may then be repeated every few weeks, depending on how much the tumor shrinks

Neuro-ophthalmology is an academically-oriented subspecialty that merges the fields of neurology and ophthalmology, often dealing with complex systemic diseases that have manifestations in the visual system. There are many sub topics in neuro ophthalmology which includes Optic neuropathy, refers to damage to the optic nerve due to any cause. Damage and death of these nerve cells, or neurons, leads to characteristic features of optic  neuropathy. The main symptom is loss of vision, with colors appearing subtly washed out in the affected eye. On medical examination, the optic nerve head can be visualised by an ophthalmoscope. Visual Neuroscience is also a branch of neuro- ophthalmology that focuses on the visual system of the human body, mainly located in the brain's visual cortex. The main goal of visual neuroscience is to understand how neural activity results in visual perception, as well as behaviours dependent on vision. In the past, visual neuroscience has focused primarily on how the brain (and in particular the Visual Cortex) responds to light rays projected from static images and onto the retina. While this provides a reasonable explanation for the visual perception of a static image, it does not provide an accurate explanation for how we perceive the world as it really is, an ever-changing, and ever-moving 3-D environment.

Pediatric ophthalmology is a sub-speciality of ophthalmology concerned with eye diseases, visual development, and vision care in children. Usually pediatric ophthalmologists focus on the development of the visual system and the various diseases that disrupt visual development in children. Children experience a variety of eye problems, many quite distinct from adult eye diseases. Pediatric ophthalmologists ares specially trained to manage such diseases like Pediatric glaucoma, this is a rare condition that may be inherited, caused by incorrect development of the eye’s drainage system before birth. This leads to increased intraocular pressure, which in turn damages the optic nerve. Symptoms of childhood glaucoma include enlarged eyes, cloudiness of the cornea, and photosensitivity. Both medication and surgery are required in some cases. Strabismus is a condition that interferes with binocular vision because it prevents a person from directing both eyes simultaneously towards the same fixation point. It is estimated that up to 5% of all children have some type or degree of strabismus. Children with strabismus may initially have double vision. This occurs because of the misalignment of the two eyes in relation to one another. In an attempt to avoid double vision, the brain will eventually disregard the image of one eye called suppression.