Optometry : journal of the American Optometric Association
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Lipemia retinalis is a well-documented but rate ocular finding directly associated with serum triglyceride levels. The clinical presentation varies with the amount of triglycerides in the blood and completely resolves with lowering triglyceride levels, making this condition transient with no visual symptoms; ⋯ Lipemia retinalis warrants an immediate complete blood count and lipid panel to Determine triglyceride levels with referral to a primary care provider.
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Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) involves nonthreatening hallucinations in patients who have no neurological and no psychological abnormalities but with significant visual impairment secondary to ocular disease, such as macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. Because of the fear of a mental illness being diagnosed, patients are often reluctant to discuss these hallucinations. ⋯ Management for these hallucinations includes treatment of the actual ocular disease as well as optimizing vision for the patient using appropriate low vision devices. As the population continues to age, more patients will be seen with reduced vision caused by a myriad of ocular diseases, increasing the likelihood that more patients may present with CBS in the future. It is therefore prudent to become familiar with the syndrome so primary care optometrists can properly identify CBS and help their patients deal with it.
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The aim of this analysis was to describe characteristics and trends of malpractice payments by optometrists since the inception of the National Provider Data Bank (NPDB) as they assumed increasing prescriptive authority. ⋯ Malpractice payments on behalf of optometrists are relatively infrequent (on average, less than 34 nationally each year) and usually relatively small (almost half less than $50,000). The frequency of payments and mean payments have increased little over the last 2 decades.