It’s doubtful that you’ll come across many eye questions on your Step 2 boards, but you might! If nothing else, this collection of board-style questions will present this material in a different perspective. All of the concepts and information for these questions should be found in the prior chapters and I’ve attempted to keep this…
If you’re rotating through an ophthalmology department, you’re going to be dragged into surgery at some point. Cataract surgery is our signature operation, so it’s worthwhile to familiarize yourself with basic lens anatomy and surgical goals. The eye is the most amazing organ in the human body, and the lens is one of the most…
Before I started my ophthalmology residency I didn’t know a thing about optics. It was embarrassing during my internship year when friends would ask me to renew their glasses only to discover I hadn’t a clue as to how to decipher their prescription! Optics principles are easy to grasp, but I think you’ll find it…
When I picked ophthalmology as a career, I never dreamed there would be so many midnight emergency room consults. Little did I know the number of people out there punching each other in the face and slamming their heads into airbags. Armies of welders, construction workers, and industrial cleaners ply their trade without proper eye-protection….
Pediatric ophthalmology is a fascinating field, but can be frustrating for many residents because children are hard to examine. Despite this challenge, pediatrics is rewarding and is one of my favorite sub-specialties. The Pediatric Exam: Examining kids is a difficult prospect, as children are moving targets and universally hate strangers messing with their eyes. You…
A third of the brain is devoted to the visual system, so neurology is an important topic! While the rest of ophthalmology involves image recognition (your ability to recognize corneal abrasions, disk cupping, and infections under the microscope), neuroophthalmology requires a more “cerebral” analysis. This makes learning the subject painful at first – trust me,…
The eye is well protected from infection by the conjunctiva and the corneal epithelium. In addition, the tear film contains antimicrobials while the tear flow itself tends to wash away pathogens. The eye also harbors a host of non-pathogenic bacteria that competitively prohibit new bacteria growth. However, these eye-defenses can be breached by trauma, improper…
The retina can be intimidating as it’s not easy to visualize the posterior pole and there is a bunch of pathology back there. There are many things I could cover in this chapter, but I’ve decided to keep things simple and only discuss a few topics like diabetic retinopathy and retinal detachments. Other disease processes…
Glaucoma is a disease where the optic nerve dies. We are not sure why or how this happens (there are many mechanical, vascular, and biochemical theories) but high intraocular pressure certainly seems to be associated, if not entirely the cause, of optic nerve death. Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of preventable blindness in…
A thorough eye exam is important! Not only is the eye the most important organ in the body (of course!), but many common systemic diseases show ocular involvement. In fact, some conditions, like diabetes, may be first detected with the eye exam. To help organize your eye exam, I’ve made a sample ophthalmology note on…
Before discussing conditions affecting the eye, we need to review some basic eye anatomy. Anatomy can be painful for some (personally, I hated anatomy in medical school) so I’m going to keep this simple. Let us start from the outside and work our way toward the back of the eye. Eyelids The eyelids protect and…