On August 6th, 2020, Prof. Farhad Hafezi was honored to be invited by His Royal Highness, Prince Abdulaziz Bin Ahmed, of the Saudi Royal Family, to present the Shield Lecture at the Saudi Ophthalmology 2020 virtual meeting. ELZA colleague and surgeon, Dion Paridaens was also honoured with the Gold Medal lecture.
Something as simple as eye-rubbing can accelerate keratoconus progression. The cornea becomes weakened, it starts to bulge, and vision dramatically decreases. But CXL can treat it, by saturating the cornea with a vitamin (riboflavin, also called vitamin B2) and irradiating it with ultraviolet light for 10–30 minutes. Prof. Hafezi has been involved with CXL technology from the early days, and he and his research group has yielded many breakthroughs with CXL, ranging from treating ultra-thin corneas with CXL (that would otherwise require corneal transplantation), demonstrating the essential role of oxygen in the cross-linking photochemical reaction, revealing the true prevalence of keratoconus, and bringing CXL out of the operating rooms and into ophthalmologists’ offices at their slit lamps.
The Shield Lecture
The Shield Lecture is one of the highest honors that can be bestowed by the Saudi Ophthalmologic Society, as demonstrated by the royal invitation by Prince Abdulaziz Bin Ahmed of the Saudi Royal Family
About Prof. Dr. Hafezi
Prof. Hafezi MD, PhD, FARVO is a research group leader at the Centre for Biology and Molecular Medicine (CABMM) at the University of Zurich, a Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Geneva, an Adjunct Clinical Professor at the University of Southern California Los Angeles, USA, and a Visiting Professor at Wenzhou University in Wenzhou, China, and is the Medical Director of the ELZA Institute, Dietikon, Switzerland (www.elza-institute.com).
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