CET Lecture Notes

Merton Sutton and Wandsworth LOC

CET Event, 24 February Wimbledon

Lecture Highlights.

Mr Phillip Moradi, Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at St. Hellier hospital, delivered a fascinating lecture about developments and progress in gene therapy treatment for rare inherited degenerative eye disease such as Retinitis Pigmentosa.

He explained that better understanding of the biochemical mechanisms underlying these diseases may in the future lead to treatments for common retinal degenerators such as ARMD.

Mr Moradi encourages all of us as community practitioners to put across to patients the message that cigarette smoking is very detrimental to the long-term health of the retina. He added that RNIB surveys have shown the most people are not aware of the risks to retinal health of smoking. He pointed out in particular that young people should be made aware of the risks to their vision from cigarette smoking.

Survey evidence also shows that awareness of this specific risk may have more impact on smoking behaviour than that of the better known risks associated with it such as lung cancer and heart disease. There is evidence that young people in particular are more concerned about the risk of losing vision through smoking than they are about it increasing the risk of developing heart and lung disease.