Week in review: Nose thanks, dog days, print-and-go corneas

A weekly roundup of ophthalmic news from around the web.

A botched nose job robbed a 41-year-old woman of her temporal vision and caused excruciating eye pain that may never go away. The liquid nose job started as a simple cosmetic procedure but deteriorated soon after the woman’s left nostril was injected with calcium hydroxyapatite, according to a report in JAMA Ophthalmology. The facial filler blocked blood flow to her eye, causing severe pain that persisted despite prompt treatment with steroids, sildenafil citrate and IOP-lowering drugs. "Given the number of [facial] injections that are happening, these are very rare complications," coauthor Lediana Goduni, MD, an ophthalmology resident who treated the woman 2 weeks later at New York University School of Medicine, told Live Science. But "when they do happen, they can be very serious." JAMA Ophthalmology

More than 7,000 working dogs and horses received free eye exams this month, thanks to an annual philanthropic event sponsored by the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists and StokesRx. Veterinary ophthalmologists at Cornell University screened seeing-eye dogs, mobility support dogs, canines that offer relief from PTSD and those that warn their humans of impending seizures or diabetic fluctuations. “For a service animal, having good vision in their working life contributes not just to their well-being but also ensures they can do their job well,” said Thomas Kern, DVM, associate professor in the department of clinical sciences. Cornell Chronicle

The wait time for cataract surgery dropped from 5 years to mere days for some Guyanese patients, thanks to a partnership between U.S. military ophthalmology troops and doctors at the Port Mourant Hospital in Guyana. The team performed 22 cataract and pterygium surgeries during the first week of the New Horizons training exercise. “The techniques we use in this setting are similar to what we can expect to see in places like Iraq and Syria without seeing the trauma,” said Army Col. Darrel Carlton, regional health command central consultant for ophthalmology at San Antonio’s Brooke Army Medical Center. U.S. Air Force

A rare blood disorder that damages vision in fewer than 15 people worldwide likely stems from a mysterious genetic glitch, researchers reported in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Patients with proximal renal tubular acidosis have an extremely low blood pH due to a mutation affecting antacid transport. But animal studies funded by the National Eye Institute suggest that 2 hallmarks of the disease—corneal edema and weak tooth enamel—would develop even if the mutation’s effects were corrected in utero, raising suspicions of other unknown genetic defects. University at Buffalo

South Korean scientists say their new invention could shorten years-long waiting lists for corneal transplants. The team recently unveiled 3D-printed corneas (above, left) that boast similar properties as human tissue (above, right), according to findings in the journal Biofabrication. The artificial corneas are printed using bioink derived from decellularized corneal stroma and stem cells, using a process that mimics the corneal microenvironment and fosters human-like transparency. Newly printed collagen fibrils take about 4 weeks to form a lattice resembling a native human cornea. Biofabrication