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According to market research by Persistence Market Research, the global market for ophthalmic devices is predicted to increase significantly by 2020. The prediction is based on information from a number of geographic locations, including the United States and countries in Europe and Asia. Increasing prevalence of eye disease contributes to the ophthalmic devices market, which includes vision care, diagnostic, and surgery devices.

Higher incidence of common eye disorders such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, cataracts, and glaucoma are leading more and more patients all over the world to seek out treatment for vision loss. Aging populations, lifestyle-associated diseases (such as diabetes or high blood pressure), and government healthcare
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Researchers from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Hospital in  Germany have determined that advanced MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) can assist in accurately diagnosing optic nerve health – in particular, optic neuritis and the prognosis for short-term recovery and decision as to the most appropriate therapies.

Optic neuritis is a potentially serious inflammation of the optic nerve, sometimes accompanied by loss or damage to the myelin sheath that surrounds the optic nerve.  It is most often experienced by younger adults, and whose symptoms can include pain, vision changes in perception of color, light/dark perception, and blurriness.  It can come on suddenly and often is of short duration with full recovery in 90% of patients.

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Donated eyes from the dead may be the key to giving sight back to the living. Researchers have found that cells from the back of the eye may be taken from donated eyes and used to repair the eyes of the blind. Human cells have successfully been used to restore some sight to blind mice, with human trials set to begin in the next three years.

The special type of cells extracted from the back of the eye are called
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Vision is the sense most heavily relied on by modern, technological society. Hearing may come in as a close second, but even without a sense of hearing, we could still navigate most electronics. Without our eyes, that becomes a laborious task. But what, exactly, are the screens we look at so much, doing to our eyes?

Blue Light Damages the Retina

Those glowing flat panes, held mere inches from our face, emit a powerful light that can, opticians say, lead to permanent eye damage. Much of the light that comes out of a screen is blue-violet. Studies show that, over time, too much exposure to blue-violet light can injure the retina. Retina damage can lead to macular degeneration,
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Everyone is sensitive to light to some degree, but light sensitivity, or photophobia is an abnormal intolerance for light. Discomfort can be experienced from light sources such as sunlight and fluorescent or other artificial lights. It may cause the person with light sensitivity to squint or to have to close their eyes. It can cause pain and/or tears. In some cases, this may be accompanied by a headache.

The brighter the light, the greater the discomfort. Generally people
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Technology for restoring vision to the blind continues to improve with devices like the Argus II, a system of special glasses and electrodes implanted directly in the retina. While only six people in the U.S. are using the Argus II, more and more similar means of achieving “bionic eyes” are becoming available. These systems allow patients who have lost sight due to certain eye diseases to regain basic recognition of light and shapes.
The Argus II involves a simple set of glasses equipped with a camera not unlike those in smartphones. The camera sends
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Ocular Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a powerful technology for diagnosing and monitoring common eye diseases. Though the technology has existed for many years, it has not previously been available to a large number of optometry practices. Now, however, patients are getting access to OCT scans in more offices as a result of technological improvements and lower costs. 

OCT creates images and measures the tissue structures of the eye by a process similar to ultrasound, but with light instead of sound. The patient simply rests his or her chin onto a chin rest and looks into a blue light.
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RetroSense Therapeutics has received Orphan Drug designation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its lead product, RST-001, to treat retinitis pigmentosa (RP).

RP is a rare eye disease in which light receptors in the eye gradually die off, eventually leading to blindness. RP can be due to any one of over a hundred different gene defects. Currently there is no conventional treatment or cure, but nutritional therapies have been shown to slow the progress of the retinitis pigmentosa.

However, RetroSense is employing
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Most people have heard of styes mainly because they have had one. A chalazion is somewhat similar to a sty, but it is not the same thing. A sty is an acute infection of one of the oil-producing glands of the upper and lower eyelids, called meibomian glands. Each eye has 30-40 meibomian glands.

A chalazion is a clogged meibomian gland. The gland becomes blocked and oil builds up inside it. Eventually, the gland breaks open and leaks excess oil into the surrounding tissue, causing inflammation. While chalazia can hurt like styes do, they are more frequently painless lumps on the upper or lower eyelid. They occur most frequently in persons 30-50 years of age, but children can also get them.
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A study in the British Medical Journal has shown that exercise can be as effective a treatment as conventional medication for some conditions. By examining 305 different trials, researchers found that patients that used exercise regularly as treatment rivaled or surpassed patients taking pills for the same conditions when examining their life expectancies.

The study was conducted by researchers at the London School of Economics, Stanford University School of Medicine, and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute at Harvard Medical School. Researchers scanned thousands of studies comparing exercise and medication and narrowed their analysis down to 305 of them. The cases included nearly 340,000 patients, treating conditions such as stroke rehab, heart disease and heart failure, and pre-diabetes.

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