A new scientific treatise from Paschalides Medical Publications.

Read the foreword for the Greek Edition written by Dr. G. Chronopoulos.

A few years ago, the phrase “knowledge is power” still retained its originality and freshness. Today it is a belief among all educated people that, especially in issues of health and disease that are lived by everyone every day, albeit unconsciously, this saying holds even more gravity.

Ophthalmic Surgery admittedly possesses a pioneering position in medicine. Impressive achievements in all its branches, but especially Refractive Surgery during the second half of the 20th century, gave it new prestige and affected its course substantially. During the last decade of the century, Refractive Surgery started to accept strong influences from the progress in biomedical sciences and technology, which moves forward with an explosive pace. Rapid advancements in the technology of Excimer lasers, as well as the increasing applications of Femtosecond lasers in the creation of the flap have brought Refractive Surgery to great crossroads and tend to change its physiognomy, to a point that it is unknown what its course will be in the 21st century in which we currently liveTraditional complications such as under-/overcorrections, incomplete, decentered flaps or “button hole” flaps tend towards extinction with the introduction of new pioneering technologies in the practice of corneal surgery. However, the increase of the frequency of refractive surgery created new issues, such as new forms of persistent inflammations, the need to calculate the strength of IOL in cataract surgery after corneal surgery or the loss of endothelial cells, all of which are complications that worry all refractive surgeons in their everyday practice. For these reasons, the doctor's continuous education is more necessary than ever before and needs to be achieved with all available means, like conventions, conferences, round tables and magazines, but also with treatises, where the knowledge given is responsible and crystallized.

This book concerns both the Resident doctor and also the experienced Ophthalmologist. For the former it is a detailed and informative source of knowledge on Refractive Surgery, while for the latter it plays the part of a modern reference book. Its exclusive goal is to provide current and future surgeons with the most recent information on the pathogenesis of possible complications in Refractive Surgery and offer an approach to their prevention and treatment.

The resident, the general ophthalmologist and the surgeon are always in need of approachable and rich in content treatises that are a source of quick reference in a given time, when the doctor considers necessary to bring certain knowledge back to memory. I believe that Jorge L. Ailo and Dimitri T. Azar succeeded in full by avoiding details that are not essential in the development of a surgical issue.

It is a successful and dense presentation of 19 chapters on how to treat the most common and difficult complications, which, in the writers' opinion, but also in the opinion of this foreword's author, belong in that list of subjects whose knowledge is essential for the ophthalmologist, but also for the young surgeon that is learning the art of refractive surgery.

Notable merits are its clarity, its method, its elegance and the rich illustrations of excellent quality.

To translate the individual chapters, colleagues that have dedicated their lives to the service of a certain expertise were recruited, in order for us to give to the beginning of the new century a completely modern treatise of refractive ophthalmic surgery for the first time in a Greek edition. I would like to thank them for the special care they have shown to faithfully translate the text, even if, in some cases, paraphrasing was de factoFinally, I would like to thank the publisher, Mr. P. Paschalides, for his efforts on this complete edition. I am sure that “Treatment of Complications in Refractive Surgery” will gain from its medical readers the recognition and appreciation that an important text deserves and that it will be an especially useful tool of knowledge and, at the same time, an important incentive for further study and deeper research in the world of knowledge.

George Chronopoulos

Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon

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