ELZA’s medical director, Prof. Dr. Farhad Hafezi MD, PhD, FARVO, was invited to give two lectures this afternoon at the 18th Annual Meeting of the Moroccan Society of Refractive Surgery and Implantology (SAMIR) in Rabat, Morocco.
SAMIR is a professional ophthalmology society, created in 2006, dedicated to refractive surgery, cataract, and cornea surgery. The SAMIR annual congress promotes and disseminates information linked to the rapid evolution of diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, such as corneal cross-linking (CXL).
Prof. Hafezi’s first lecture at the Roundtable Session was on “Stabilizing keratoconus: new protocols,” where he reviewed CXL and the latest advances in keratoconus treatment advancements. The presentation included details of ELZA’s research that has become part of clinical practice. These include modern protocols for cross-linking thin corneas (the sub400 protocol) and high-fluence accelerated CXL protocols, which strengthen the cornea similarly to the gold-standard Dresden protocol but in a shorter period.
The second lecture, titled “Improving keratoconus: PACE (2nd generation customized CXL),” focused on PACE (PTK-assisted customized epi-on corneal cross-linking), a procedure that enhances the shape of the cornea in keratoconus or other corneal ectasias. PACE uses detailed corneal maps and an excimer laser to remove the epithelium over the cone without affecting the structural stromal tissue beneath. A special CXL protocol then exploits the UV and oxygen gradients generated by customized epithelial cell ablation over the cone. This method selectively flattens the cone, resulting in corneal flattening and regularization, significantly rehabilitating vision in these patients.
Prof. Hafezi expressed his gratitude to the organizers and the Scientific Committee of SAMIR 2024 for the opportunity to present ELZA’s work on keratoconus treatment advancements at their annual congress.
