It is the No. 1 line-item cost of Medicare reimbursement and affects more than 20 million people in the United States. Cataracts, which can have devastating effects on the eye, affect 42 percent of the population between the ages of 70 and 80, and 68 percent of the population over the age of 80, according to the National Eye Institute.

The Fred Hollows Foundation has issued a warning that people around the world are in greater danger of losing their vision because of climate change.

Trans-scleral and Trans-palpebral (through the Eyelid) Tonometry now allows surgeons to determine Intra-Ocular Pressure (IOP) shortly after the surgery. The Congress and Exhibition of the 12th ESCRS Winter Meeting is being held in Barcelona, Spain. BiCOM, Inc. represents and supports tonometer Diation in over 30 countries.

Using the tools and techniques of soft condensed matter physics, a research team in Switzerland has demonstrated that a finely tuned balance of attractions between proteins keeps the lens of the eye transparent, and that even a small change in this balance can cause proteins to aggregate and de-mix. This leads to cataract formation, the world’s leading cause of blindness.

Patients in rural China who received cataract surgery from specially trained non-ophthalmologists had improved vision 10 to 14 months following surgery, according to an article that will appear in the November 2007 print issue of Archives of Ophthalmology. This article was released along with articles from more than 200 other journals participating in a Global Theme Issue on the theme of Poverty and Human Development, coordinated by the Council of Science Editors.