Punctual, as every autumn, the appointment with Videocatarattarefrattiva arrived again this year, the meeting/confrontation organised by Lucio Buratto to take stock of the two most rapidly developing eye surgeries: cataract and refractive surgery. We wanted to gather the authoritative point of view of Vittorio Picardo, who is in charge of the event's scientific secretariat together with Antonio Scialdone.
Let's start with an overview, what do you think are the most interesting innovations that will animate Videocatarattarefrattiva 2015?
This Congress, conceived and desired by Lucio Buratto for more than 30 years, remains a key moment for innovations in cataract and refractive surgery. This year, we will see the role of the femtolaser in cataract surgery become more and more established, and an increasingly simple but technologically sophisticated approach to the so-called IOLs Premium.
 You have always been close to SIFI in its activities to support the medical and scientific education of ophthalmologists, from scientific publishing (the volumes and our journal) to courses on the most important innovations in ophthalmology. Tell us a little bit, as an opinion leader in ophthalmology, how is this 80-year commitment (1935 - 2015) experienced?
Drs. Antonino Benanti and Carmelo Chines, famous pharmacists from Catania, had the idea 80 years ago of creating a small company that wanted to constantly support the daily work of the ophthalmologist, not just in Sicily, but in Italy. My father even produced his Specialisation Thesis on the use of sulfamines as topical therapy in ophthalmology in collaboration with SIFI in 1949, as an initial step towards the production of Pensulvit shortly afterwards. The company's developments over the years are there for all to see, having expanded and then updated its drug list, introduced a line for instrumental diagnostics and more recently a surgical line. As an image I would say the tracks of a train, one the ophthalmologists, the other the SIFI; the train that is, our patients run safely because the wheels rest on the two pillars of activity. The Company (with its research and products) and the practitioner (with his clinical-therapeutic activity).
You will be moderator of the SIFI course "Objective in cataract surgery: clinical functional success. Progressive IOL, therapy." Can you anticipate the main contents?
The course is part of an information project that the company has been promoting for some time now, ever since it introduced with its own patent a new lens for correcting presbyopia that has special and exclusive technical and structural characteristics. With the course once again we want to make known not only the product, but how it is now 'friendly' to use, i.e. simple and safe. And on this occasion we will take advantage of the experience of some Colleagues, old Friends, Pasquale Aragona, Claudio Carbonara, Antonio Marino and Giacomo Savini. From their contributions, I am sure, we will have further elements to appreciate the SIFI Mini WELL lens, of which I myself am making an already positive clinical case history.
And to end on a high note, what do you think will be the most important developments in the field of refractive cataract in the near future?
We should perhaps correct the question to 'refractive surgery of the crystalline lens', because it is no longer necessary for a patient to have a cataract in order to improve the visual quality and performance of their ocular apparatus.
Pre-surgery diagnostic technology is providing further elements to achieve increasingly precise post-surgery results that correspond to the pre-operative programme. FLACS, i.e. Femtosecond laser surgery, also seems destined for further development, as the latest laser units already testify. In short, perhaps one day more than a surgeon in the operating room, a bioengineer or even a robot will be needed....
This may be the future... not even too far off.
Dr. Carmelo Chines
Direttore responsabile
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