Notable Dates in Ophthalmology — Summer 2021

10 years ago (2011)

An intravitreal insert releasing a sustained and controlled fluocinolone was reported to improve visual acuity for up to 36 months in patients with diabetic macular edema by Dr. David Brown and associates at Methodist Hospital in Houston.

25 years ago (1996)

Latanoprost, a newly introduced prostaglandin analog, was cited as “a new horizon” by Dr. Johan Stjernschantz of Pharmacia Ophthalmic and Uppsala University in Sweden and his associates in the medical management of glaucoma.

50 years ago (1971)

The British biochemist and Nobel laureate John Vane (1927–2004) showed that aspirin blocked the prostaglandin thromboxane, which is responsible for blood platelet coagulation. This was how aspirin was effective in preventing vascular occlusions.

British biochemist and Nobel laureate John Vane (1927–2004).

100 years ago (1921)

Dr. Otto Barkan (1887–1958), trained in ophthalmology in Vienna and Munich, returned to his birthplace of San Francisco, where he focused on understanding the causative mechanisms and treatment of glaucoma.

250 years ago (1771)

Marie Francois Xavier Bichat (1771–1802), was a Parisian anatomist and pathologist and the founder of microscopic anatomy. He advocated the study of anatomy on the basis of the different tissues of the body. Bichat distinguished 21 types of elementary tissues from which organs of the human body are composed.