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BackgroundTo identify prognostic factors determining final visual outcome following open globe injuries.MethodsRetrospective case series of patients presenting to Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia with open globe injuries from 1st January 2005 to 31st December 2017. Data collected included demographic information, ocular injury details, management and initial and final visual acuities.ResultsA total of 104 cases were identified. Predictors of poor final visual outcomes included poor presenting visual acuity (p < 0.001), globe rupture (p < 0.001), retinal detachment (p < 0.001), Zone III wounds (p < 0.001), hyphema (p=0.003), lens expulsion (p = 0.003) and vitreous hemorrhage (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis demonstrated presenting visual acuity (p < 0.001), globe rupture (p = 0.013) and retinal detachment (p = 0.011) as being statistically significant for predicting poor visual outcomes. The presence of lid laceration (p = 0.197) and uveal prolapse (p = 0.667) were not significantly associated with the final visual acuity. ConclusionsPoor presenting visual acuity, globe rupture and retinal detachment are the most important prognostic factors determining final visual acuity following open globe injury.

To document the findings of corneal biopsies for progressive microbial keratitis in a large tertiary referral institution. A retrospective medical records review of all patients who underwent at least one corneal biopsy for the diagnosis of microbial keratitis at Sydney Eye Hospital, Australia between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2016 was performed. Thirty-eight patients (18 men and 20 women) underwent a corneal biopsy for progressive microbial keratitis unresponsive to broad-spectrum topical antimicrobials. Risk factors for microbial keratitis included contact lens wear in 8 (21%), recent intraocular surgery in 5 cases (13%), recent agricultural trauma in 3 cases (8%), exposure keratopathy due to Graves’ orbitopathy in 1 case (3%), and profound systemic immunosuppression due to chemotherapy for leukaemia in 1 case (3%). The remaining 20 patients had no identifiable risk factors. Fifteen patients (39%) had a positive biopsy result, which identified bacteria in 6 cases and Mycobacteria in 1 case, both by culture of the biopsy specimen. Three cases of fungus were identified on culture of biopsy specimen, two of which were also confirmed on histopathology and an additional case was identified from histopathology alone. A single case of Acanthamoeba was diagnosed by culture and histopathology, and an additional 3 cases were diagnosed on histopathology alone. A corneal biopsy yielded new organisms in 73% (11/15) cases where the culture results of biopsy specimens were positive. Corneal biopsy is an important tool in the diagnosis of progressive keratitis, often identifying causal organisms not found on corneal scraping alone.

PurposeTo present longer-term refractive and ocular health outcomes for patients who had primary intraocular lens (IOL) insertion following infant cataract surgery.Patients and methodsA retrospective review of all infant cataract cases at a tertiary children's hospital between 2003 and 2006 was conducted. Surgery was performed before 12 months of age. IOL power was calculated using the SRK/T formula targeting hyperopia based on the child's age; children under 3 months were targeted at +9.0 D, between 3 and 6 months at +6.0 D, and between 6 and 12 months at +3.0 D. Locally weighted scatterplot smoothing and mixed models were used.ResultsA total of 12 eyes from 9 children were included (4 bilateral and 5 unilateral). Spherical equivalent refraction decreased dramatically in the first 2 years of life, with milder changes from age 2 to 4 years and minimal changes thereafter. Cylinder increased until age 5 years at ∼0.57 dioptres/year (95% confidence intervals 0.27-0.87 D, P

A 61-year-old female presented with a 3-day history of painful and reddened right eye with painful ocular movements. She had been diagnosed as having systemic mastocytosis 4 years earlier. Ocular examination showed Best Corrected Visual acuity of 6/6 right eye and 6/6 left eye. There was marked conjunctival injection and chemosis. The posterior segment was normal. The left eye was normal. Exophthalmometry showed 2 mm of right proptosis relative to the left eye. Computed tomography (CT) scans showed an ill-defined intra-conal lesion and enlargement of the lacrimal gland in the right orbit. A diagnostic biopsy was performed; the histopathology findings were of orbital mastocytosis. We present what our literature search suggests is the first biopsy-proven case of orbital mastocytosis.

Background: Propranolol is a novel therapeutic agent in the treatment of cutaneous infantile haemangiomas. We assessed the effect of propranolol therapy in infantile haemangiomas of the orbit. Methods: A case series of four patients with orbital infantile haemangiomas were referred for management in our tertiary referral hospitals. Two of the patients had inadequate responses to prior corticosteroid therapy. One of the patients was commenced on propranolol at 2.5 years of age when the lesion was not in the proliferative phase. This represented the first case report of propranolol treatment for infantile haemangioma outside infancy. The other three children were in their infancy when propranolol was commenced. The patients were treated with oral propranolol. Results: All patients had significant improvement in their physical appearance, ocular examination findings and size of their lesions on radiological evaluation. No side-effects of propranolol treatment were observed. Conclusions: Propranolol is a promising treatment against infantile haemangiomas in the orbit, not only in infants but also in an older child with a stable lesion.

Purpose: To investigate the efficacy of corneal gluing procedures for corneal perforations of mixed aetiologies in a tertiary eye hospital in Sydney, Australia. Design: Retrospective case series. Methods: Episodes of corneal gluing procedures were identified from the Sydney Eye Hospital surgical database over 42 months from January 2010. All gluing procedures in this study were conducted in the operating theatre. Categorical variables were compared using Pearson’s chi-square test. Results: Forty-five episodes of corneal gluing using n-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate were identified from 30 eyes. 18 eyes were glued once, 9 eyes were glued twice and 3 eyes were glued thrice. The median duration of butylcyanoacrylate adhesion was 14 days, range 1 to 1945 days. Our data yielded an episodic success rate of 67% for nbutyl- 2-cyanoacrylate gluing when success was defined as the tissue adhesive sealing the leak until healing by scarring or until planned definitive surgery. Secondary outcomes included success rate by the location, aetiology, and size of the corneal perforation, and did not reach statistical significance. Of our 30 eyes treated with nbutyl- 2cyanoacrylate glue, 47% (n=14) did not require further surgical intervention and healed by scarring. The complications noted with n-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate use were cornea vascularisation (n=5), conjunctival and corneal irritation (n=2), and secondary microbial keratitis (n=1). Conclusions: Corneal gluing using n-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate was successful in 67% of episodes. Almost half of our eyes healed without surgical intervention. Corneal gluing, previously thought to be a temporising measure, is effective and can potentially be a definitive treatment.

Lymphodepletion and infusion of autologous expanded tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes is effective therapy for patients with malignant melanoma. Antitumour responses are likely to be mediated by HLA class I- and II-restricted immune responses directed at tumour antigens. We assessed whether the peripheral blood of normal HLA-matched siblings of patients with melanoma could be used to generate lymphocytes with antimelanoma activity for adoptive immunotherapy after allogeneic blood or marrow transplantation. Melanoma cell lines were derived from two donors and were used to stimulate the mononuclear cells of three HLA-identical siblings. CD4(+) clones dominated cultures. Of these, approximately half were directly cytotoxic towards recipient melanoma cells and secreted interferon-gamma in response to tumour stimulation. More than half of the noncytotoxic clones also secreted interferon-gamma after melanoma stimulation. No CD4(+) clones responded to stimulation with recipient haemopoietic cells. The majority of CD8(+) clones directly lysed recipient melanoma, but did not persist in long-term culture in vitro. No crossreactivity with recipient haemopoietic cells was observed. The antigenic target of one CD4(+) clone was determined to be an HLA-DR11-restricted MAGE-3 epitope. Antigenic targets of the remaining clones were not elucidated, but appeared to be restricted through a non-HLA-DR class II molecule. We conclude that the blood of allogeneic HLA-matched sibling donors contains melanoma-reactive lymphocyte precursors directed at tumour-associated antigens. Adoptive immunotherapy with unselected or ex vivo-stimulated donor lymphocytes after allogeneic stem cell transplantation has a rational basis for the treatment of malignant melanoma.

Adoptive transfer of donor-derived cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific cytotoxic T cell (CTL) clones can restore immunity in allogeneic stem cell transplant recipients, providing protection against CMV disease. Current methods for selecting and expanding CMV-specific T cell clones are technically difficult, making adoptive T cell therapy impractical for routine clinical use. In this study, we describe a method for ex vivo generation and expansion of high-purity CMV-specific CTL using peptide-pulsed dendritic cells as antigen-presenting cells. Generation of CMV-specific CTL in numbers sufficient for clinical use in the time span of 4 weeks was accomplished in 6 of 8 CMV-seropositive donors. Examination of pp65 specificity by HLA/peptide tetramer staining demonstrated that a purity of greater than 95% peptide-specific cells could be obtained after two weekly stimulations and retained after further expansion for 3-4 weeks. Median expansion of total cell number was greater than 500-fold and expansion of peptide-specific CTL by tetramer staining was greater than 1.7 x 10(5)-fold. Four weeks after initiating CTL culture, we were able to generate greater than 10(9) total cells that specifically lysed target cells loaded with CMV peptide and cells infected with CMV. This simple and rapid method for generating high-purity CMV-specific CTL for adoptive immunotherapy is currently being examined for routine clinical use for allogeneic stem cell transplantation.

Aims: To identify potential contaminants of the corneal sampling procedure and examine the effect of wearing surgical face masks on the rate of contamination. Methods: Ten surgeons recited out loud a 30 s standardised script for corneal scraping with blood agar plates positioned 30 cm away from them. Three groups were identified: in group 1 a surgical mask was worn; group 2 had no mask worn; and group 3 had no mask but used agar plates pretreated with 5% povidone-iodine as a negative control. Each surgeon repeated the process 10 times for all groups, totalling 30 plates per surgeon and 300 plates for the experiment. All plates were masked and incubated aerobically at 37°C for 24 hours, and the number of colony forming units (CFUs) was determined. Results: At 24 hours, group 1 had a mean of 0.3 CFUs per surgeon; group 2 had 6.4 CFUs per surgeon and group 3 had 0.1 CFUs per surgeon. The difference between group 1 and group 2 was significant (p

Propranolol is a novel therapeutic agent in the treatment of cutaneous infantile haemangiomas. We assessed the effect of propranolol therapy in infantile haemangiomas of the orbit.A case series of four patients with orbital infantile haemangiomas were referred for management in our tertiary referral hospitals. Two of the patients had inadequate responses to prior corticosteroid therapy. One of the patients was commenced on propranolol at 2.5 years of age when the lesion was not in the proliferative phase. This represented the first case report of propranolol treatment for infantile haemangioma outside infancy. The other three children were in their infancy when propranolol was commenced. The patients were treated with oral propranolol.All patients had significant improvement in their physical appearance, ocular examination findings and size of their lesions on radiological evaluation. No side-effects of propranolol treatment were observed.Propranolol is a promising treatment against infantile haemangiomas in the orbit, not only in infants but also in an older child with a stable lesion.

Harnessing the power of the immune system to eliminate infection and cancer is a long-standing goal in clinical immunology. The development of a robust immune response to foreign antigen relies, in part, on communication between cellular components of the immune system. The proteins involved in governing the magnitude and longevity of an immune response are collectively called cytokines. Cytokines act directly on immune cells to induce proliferation, differentiation and tolerance, and signaling errors can lead to autoimmune disease or immune deficiency. Identification of the molecules involved in these signaling processes has allowed investigators to manipulate immune cells for therapeutic effect, both in vivo and ex vivo. While in vivo immune modulation using cytokines has produced some exciting results, the toxicity involved with systemic administration has limited their broad use in the clinic. Therefore, research has been focused on the ex vivo manipulation of immune cells for adoptive transfer to treat cancer and infection. This review will focus on the ex vivo manipulation of immune cells with particular emphasis on stimulating cytotoxic T cell responses. Adoptive transfer of ex vivo generated cell types may then be used to treat malignant and viral disease.

The Medical Journal of Australia ISSN: 0025-729X 7 August 2006 3 185 173-174©The Medical Journal of Australia 2006www.mja.com.auLessons from Practiceeratitis remains a significant risk of wearing contact lenses,despite advances over the past 10 years such as disposableand silicone hydrogel lenses. The incidence of severekeratitis from extended hydrogel lens wear was estimated at 96.4(95% CI, 37.5–254.2) per 10000 lens wearers in a British study.