Coronaviruses are known to be responsible for infections in humans since the 1960s and have accounted for epidemics in recent human history. this website More recently, in 2019, a disease caused by a new coronavirus appeared in China, in the province of Wuhan, with a characteristic of greater infectivity, called COVID-19, which has caused a new world pandemic. Considering the need to contain the advance in the number of cases, based on the high rate of transmissibility, several countries have adopted extreme social distancing measures, including the so-called ‘lockdown’. Despite the socioeconomic side effects, the aforementioned measure reduced the progression of the pandemic in countries that adopted it. In Brazil, the state of Ceará was one of the first epicenters of the disease in the country and the state capital city of Fortaleza, on May 8, implemented the lockdown measure to contain the increase in the number of cases. It was then observed, in a tertiary hospital, which is a referral for COVID-19 cases, a decrease in the daily occupancy rate of beds reserved for the pandemic after the lockdown onset, evidencing that this measure leads to a sustainable reduction in bed occupation rates, thus preventing the collapse and overload in health services.

To evaluate safety and efficacy of topical cysteamine ophthalmic solution for corneal cystinosis.

Seven databases were searched (PubMed, OVID, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Central, Google Scholar, and ClinicalTrials.gov) for relevant studies, using appropriate keywords. Comparative observational studies and randomized controlled trials comparing cysteamine with control or other formulations for treatment of corneal or ophthalmic cystinosis were included. Outcome measurements were improvement or response to therapy, change in corneal cystine crystal score (CCCS), invivo confocal microscopy score (IVCM), cystine crystal depth, contrast sensitivity (CS), photophobia score, and safety.

Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Seven studies were included. Compared to placebo and control, the cysteamine arm was better in terms of improvements and responses to therapy (2 studies showed a risk ratio [RR] of 16; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.30-111.37) and crystal density score (1 study showed a mean differenlation (0.1%).

Conventional cysteamine (0.1% to 0.3%) performed better than placebo (control) in terms of response to therapy. In terms of decreasing corneal cystine density, cysteamine (0.55%) was better than cystamine (0.55%), and the viscous Cystadrops (0.55%) was better than the standard formulation (0.1%).

To evaluate the effect of physician face mask use on rates and outcomes of postinjection endophthalmitis.

Retrospective, comparative cohort study.

Setting Single-center. StudyPopulation Eyes receiving intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor injections from July 1, 2013, to September 1, 2019.

Cases were divided into “Face Mask” group if face masks were worn by the physician during intravitreal injections or “No Talking” group if no face mask was worn but a no-talking policy was observed during intravitreal injections. MainOutcomeMeasures Rate of endophthalmitis, visual acuity, and microbial spectrum.

Of 483,622 intravitreal injections administered, 168 out of 453,460 (0.0371%) cases of endophthalmitis occurred in the No Talking group, and 9 out of 30,162 (0.0298%) cases occurred in the Face Mask group (odds ratio, 0.81; 95% confidence interval, 0.41-1.57; P= .527). Sixteen cases of oral flora-associated endophthalmitis were found in the No Talking group (1 in 28,341 injections), comparedlarly attributable to oral flora.

This study characterized the delivery of emergent ophthalmic surgical care during April 2020 of the coronarvirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic compared with the same interval the previous year.

Retrospective observational before-and-after study.

This study reviewed and characterized each emergent and/or urgent procedure performed during April 2020 and April 2019 at a single tertiary ophthalmology referral center. Information collected included the details of patient presentation, diagnosis, surgical procedure, and preoperative COVID-19 testing.

In total, 117 surgical procedures were performed on 114 patients during the month of April 2020 compared with 1,107 performed in April 2019 (P < .0001). Retinal detachment repair was the most common procedure (n= 37; 31.6%) in April 2020, whereas elective cataract surgery (n= 481; 47.3%) was the most common procedure in April 2019. The mean age of patients was 50.0 years in April 2020 compared with 59.0 years (P < .0001) the previous year. During April 2revious year. Broad preoperative screening led to 1 positive COVID-19 test in an asymptomatic patient.

To comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of different types of laser trabeculoplasty (LT) in the treatment of open-angle glaucoma.

Systematic review and network meta-analysis.

Eligible randomized controlled trials (RCT) were identified by searching PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, SCOPUS, CNKI, and CBM for studies published between January 1, 2000 and April 20, 2020. Eight interventions were evaluated, including argon LT (ALT), medications, 180° selective LT (SLT), 270° SLT, 360° SLT, new LT, transscleral 360° SLT with SLT performed without gonioscopy, and low-energy 360° SLT. The primary outcome was reduction of medicated and unmedicated intraocular pressure (IOP) at six months. Secondary outcomes included reduction of IOP at 12 months, incidences of complications, and change in number of medications. Head-to-head meta-analysis and network meta-analysis were performed using STATA and R software.

In total, 22 studies were included, involving 2,859 eyes of 2,704 patients. In terms of IOP reductioormed RCTs with larger sample sizes are needed.Saudi Arabia is the largest of the Arabian Gulf countries with a total population of 33.41 million as of 2017. This report summarizes the experience from four leading tertiary care hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) centers in Saudi Arabia representing more than 90% of all HSCTs performed in the country. Between 1984 and 2016, a total of 6,184 HSCTs were performed. Of these, 3,586 HSCTs were performed in adults and 2,598 HSCTs were performed in pediatric patients. Malignancy was the main indication for transplantation (47%). While most transplants were performed from an identical sibling donor, HSCTs from cord blood, unrelated and, more recently, haploidentical donors have also been performed. Relative shortage of HSCT bed capacity is perceived to be a limiting factor in Saudi Arabia. Lately, more HSCT centers are emerging with rapid growth, which may significantly improve the access to HSCT in the country in the near future.