EURETINA 2021: A vast menu of educational opportunities for retina specialists

The highly anticipated EURETINA 2021 Virtual Meeting scheduled for September 9 to 12, 2021, is fast approaching and should prove to be as great an educational opportunity as last year’s conference for exposure to cutting-edge scientific developments.

EURETINA President Prof. Frank G. Holz, FEBO, FARVO, reported that this year’s meeting will be structured similarly to that of 2020 and the expectation is that in excess of 8,000 attendees will register. He suggests checking the EURETINA website for program update, enhancements, and deadlines.

Four keynote lectures are scheduled, the dates and times of which will be announced later. These include the EURETINA Lecture 2021 delivered by SriviVas Sadda, who will discuss “Choriocapillaris in AMD: New Insights into Pathophysiology”; the Gisbert Richard Lecture 2021, delivered by Heinrich Heimann on “Visual Acuity Following Retinal Detachment Surgery”; the Kreissig Award Lecture 2021, given by Ogugua Okonkwo on “Neuroprotective Strategy for Nonarteritic Central Retinal Artery Occlusion”; and the Ophthalmologica Award Lecture 2021, delivered by Camiel Boon on “Serous Business: Dissecting the Broad Spectrum of Diseases with Subretinal Fluid in the Macula.”

Daily conference offerings

A plethora of educational sessions, symposia, and instructional courses are scheduled for each day of the conference. The following is an up-to-date daily listing of what is planned.

September 9

Sessions

Decision Making in Challenging Cases (12:00 Central European Summer Time[CEST]) (chairs, G. Querques, R. Schlingemann). This vitreoretinal surgery session covers surgical issues, hereditary disease, neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and COVID cases.

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (13:00 CEST) (chairs, F.G. Holz, A. Tufail, G. Staurenghi). This session focuses on progressive geographic atrophy, information gleaned from neovascular AMD registries, exudative AMD, and artificial intelligence (AI) predictions of frequency of injections in neovascular AMD.

Diabetic Retina (15:00 CEST)(chairs,E. Midena, R. Schlingemann). Coverage includes retinal blood flow, imaging biomarkers, diabetic macular edema, nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy, and surgical solutions.

Uveitis/Endophthalmitis (16:45 CEST) (chairs, J.V. Meurs, J Garcia-Arumi). The session focuses on retinal vasculitis, new biologics for posterior uveitis, fluocinolone acetonide for noninfectious uveitis, infection diagnosis, and endophthalmitis research.

Symposia

Management of Special and Difficult Cases of Vitreoretinal Disease (12:00 CEST)(chairs, F. Bandello, R. Cano, Y. Le Mer). Difficult cases are discussed.

International Society of Ocular Trauma ISOT: Retina Surgery in Challenging Situations of Ocular Trauma (13:00 CEST) (chairs, F. Kuhn, S. Natarajan, D. Pelayes). The presentations address traumatic cataract and iris management, blue trauma and the lens, severe trauma, intraocular foreign bodies, and traumatic macular hole.

Evicr.net – European Multinational Clinical Research in Retina (15:00 CEST (chairs, F. Bandello, J. Cunha-Vaz, H. Scholl). Discussants address retinal dystrophy, AMD outcomes, new treatment for retinal dystrophy, and biomarkers in diabetic retinal disease.

Is It Worth Making Research and Publishing with Octa? (16:45 CEST) (chairs, G. Querques,S. Sadda, R. Spaide). This session addresses challenges in clinical practice, assessment of macular neovascularization and the choriocapillaris, and binarization thresholds in macular perfusion quantification.

Remote Monitoring of Retinal Diseases and the Implications of Durable, Long-Acting Therapeutics In Clinical Practice, Especially in Times of Covid-19 (17:45 CEST) (chairs, F. Bandello, A. Loewenstein). This session discusses false alarms in home monitoring, AI algorithms, remote screening/monitoring during COVID-19, methods of home monitoring, and remote monitoring of long-acting and slow-release drugs.

September 10

Sessions

Management of COMPLEX RRD - Retinal detachment surgery: Less is more or More is Less? (10:00 CEST) (chairs, A. Laidlaw, J. Garcia-Arumi). The coverage focuses on predicting success/failure, pneumatic surgery, vitreoschisis peeling, retinal detachment repair

Inherited Retinal Degenerations I: Diagnosis and counseling of IRDs (12:00 CEST) (chairs, C. Hoyng, C. Klaver, J. Sahel). This session highlights diagnosis and counseling, progressive photoreceptor and macular dystrophies.

Inherited Retinal Degenerations II: Therapeutic perspectives for IRDs (13:00 CEST) (chairs, J. Sahel France, C. Boon). Presentations discuss gene/cell-based therapies and vision restoration.

EURETINA Guidelines for the Management of Retinal Disease: The Next Steps (15:00 CEST) (chairs, A. Loewenstein, U. Schmidt-Erfurth). Experts discuss AI in AMD, neovascular AMD, geographic atrophy, diabetic retinal/macular disease, cardiovascular/neurologic disease, and deep learning surgical guidance in pars plana vitrectomy.

RETINAWS (16:00 CEST) (chairs, K. Rezaei, R. Tadayoni). This session provides a potpourri of management options in vitreoretinal surgery.

Symposia

What's New and Challenging Cases of Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy: An Asia-Pacific Vitreo-Retina Society Symposium (10:00 CEST) (chair, P. Ruamviboonsuk). This symposium includes discussions on polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) and pachychoroid, AI in PCV, diagnostics, surgery for subretinal hemorrhages, and challenging cases.

Groundbreaking Research on Choroid (12:00 CEST)(chairs, K. Kadonosono, Y. Ogura, T. Sakamoto). The presenters discuss choroidal imaging, choroid and pachychoroid diseases, choroidal venous insufficiency, choroid vessels in myopic dome-shaped macula and central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) as a scleral disease.

Vitreo-Retinal Surgeon’s Nightmares! (13:00 CEST) (chair, B. Chanana). This session covers complications arising during vitreoretinal surgeries.

Foveal Development in Health and in Disease. Insights from Histology, Oct, Oct-A and Adaptive Optics (15:00 CEST) (chairs, K. Hess, B. Lorenz). The presenters discuss macular and foveal development histology and on imaging, foveal hypoplasia, macular development arrest in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP).

Pediatric Retina Challenges (16:00 CEST) (chairs, C. Mariotti, E. Midena). The challenges include ROP, posterior uveitis, genetic therapy in pediatric dystrophies, vitreoretinal surgery in retinal angiomatosis, and arresting myopia progression.

The Euroversion Case Contest (16:00 CEST)(chairs, A. Laidlaw, S. Saidkasimova). Presentations to be determined.

September 11

Sessions

Tumors (10:00 CEST) (chairs, H. Heimann, N. Bechrakis). The presenters discuss details of diagnostics and addressing ocular tumors.

Pathological Myopia (12:00 CEST) (chairs, R. Tadayoni, X.-X. Li). Experts discuss high myopia in children/adolescents, deep learning for detecting myopic maculopathy, myopic traction, and maculoschisis.

Late Breaking (13:00 CEST) (chairs, J. Garcia-Arumi, K. Rezaei, R. Tadayoni). Details to come.

Retinal Vascular Diseases (16:15 CEST) (chairs, A. Loewenstein, N. Eter). Topics include the SCORE 2 and LEAVO studies, diabetic macular edema, AI and diabetic screening, micropulse laser, occlusive retinal vasculitis, retinal vascular management, and macular ischemia.

Symposia

New Approaches to the Prevention and Treatment of Myopia: Update 2021 (9:00 CEST) (Chairs, R. Abbott, A. Grzybowski). Presenters discuss epidemiology and risk factors, clinical consequences, myopia control, outdoor time and interventions, and prevention strategies.

Complications in Vitreoretinal Surgery (10:00 CEST) (chairs, H. Helbig, F.G. Holz, D. Pauleikhoff). The topics covered are minimally invasive surgeries, pearls/pitfalls in posterior vitreoretinal surgery, surgery in pediatric patients, persistent macular hole, epiretinal membrane surgery, and the dissatisfied patient after retinal detachment surgery.

Pachychoroid Spectrum: Diagnosis and Evidence Based Therapeutic Options (12:00 CEST) (chairs, C.J.F. Boon, G. Querques). Discussion include classification/diagnosis, photodynamic therapy in CSC, peripapillary pachychoroid syndrome, anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy for pachychoroid disease, optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) in diagnosis, and pachychoroid aneurysmal type 1 macula neovascularization.

Standardization and Definition of Qualitative and Quantitative OCT-A Parameters (13:00 CEST) (chairs, M. Munk, S. Vujosevic, N. Waheed). The discussions cover nomenclature and limitations of OCTA parameters and exudative AMD.

From the AI-Lab to Clinical Practice: Clearing the Hurdles (16:15 CEST) (chairs, J.A. Hallak, F.G. Holz, M. Pfau). Topics covered include real-world multi-domain data applications for clinical settings, validation of AI applications, and sharing AI applications.

ASRS Symposium (17:15 CEST) (chair, P. Ferrone). Coverage includes peel-induced maculopathy, vision loss with anti-VEGF therapy for neovascular AMD, outcomes of surgery for rhegmatogenous retinal detachments, dry AMD, gene therapy for wet AMD, and OCTA in macular surgery.

September 12

Sessions

Better Patient Counseling: Using Epidemiological Evidence in Day-to-Day Clinical Practice (9:00 CEST) (chairs, C. Klaver, R. Finger) Discussion focuses on myopia and quarantine, physical activity in AMD, diabetic eye care, nutrition in AMD, and blue light and eye health.

Retinal Imaging, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data (10:00 CEST) (chairs, N. Eter, S. Wolf) Experts discuss AI and deep learning in retinal diseases.

Research Session (12:00 CEST) (chairs, C. Klaver, M. Zinkernagel, R. Schlingemann). Presenters reports on optogenetics, retinal findings in COVID-19, angiogenesis and fibrosis, RAINBOW Study, and single-cell retinal analysis.

Symposia

Tackling Subretinal Hemorrhage: What Is New? (9:00 CEST) (chairs, K. Januschowski,J.V. Meurs, K. Willekens). This session covers OCT classification of subretinal hemorrhage, treatment options, outcomes of existing treatments, retinal pigment epithelium patches, and the TIGER Study.

ESASO Symposium: Rapid Fire Clinical Case on Degenerative Myopia (10:00 CEST) (chairs, M. Battaglia, B. Corcostegui). Clinical cases will be discussed.

Update on the Role of Internal Limiting Membrane (ILM) Peeling in Vitreoretinal Diseases (12:00 CEST) (chair, L.A. Barquet, J. Garcia-Arumi). The experts discuss ILM peeling in macular holes, epiretinal membranes, tractional myopic maculopathy, primary rhegmatogenous retinal detachment, and diabetic macular edema; and safety aspects.

Silicone Oil and Other Surgical Medical Devices Facing The New Regulation of the European Union: Is It the Answer to Toxicity? (13:00 CEST) (chair, J.C.P Jimeno). The topics include an overview, data from the BEAVRS study, clinical complications, endogenous proteins, silicone oil vs. heavy silicone oil, and safety of silicone oil in the eye.

Instructional Courses

Courses are available in vitreoretinal surgery, intraocular tumors, AMD, imaging, vascular disease and diabetic retinopathy, anterior and posterior segment surgery, uveitis, and new drugs treatments and technology throughout the course of the conference.

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