Although The Cornea Society (formerly known as the Castroviejo Society) is an international society of corneal specialists. Every 10 years, the Cornea Society organizes and hosts the World Cornea Congress, where clinicians and researchers convene to discuss progress in the corneal subspecialty during the preceding decade. The meetings have always been well attended by approximately 500 individuals, but the World Corneal Congress V, held last April, attracted an impressive 1,600 attendees.

During this year's conference, speakers addressed a wide variety of issues, and the following articles touch on several of the most interesting presentations given. For example, the technique of endothelial transplantation continues to evolve but appears already to speed patients' visual rehabilitation. Other investigators focused on post-LASIK ectasia, all cases of which surgeons assumed had preoperative risk factors such as high myopia or abnormal preoperative topography. At the 2005 congress, however, researchers reported that some patients who suffer ectasia after LASIK exhibit none of the typical risk factors, a finding that demonstrates that we do not yet understand all of the mechanisms of this condition. Areas of debate included how best to rehabilitate patients' vision after corneal transplant and whether a reclassification of corneal dystrophies is warranted, based on advancing genetic research.

From the presentations highlighted in this edition of Cataract & Refractive Surgery Today, it should not be hard to understand why attendees at the World Corneal Congress V felt that waiting 10 years for the next meeting was too long. As a result, plans are underway to hold the next congress in 2010. 

Edward J. Holland, MD, is Director of Cornea at the Cincinnati Eye Institute and Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. Dr. Holland may be reached at (859) 331-9000 ext. 3064;
eholland@fuse.net.