A new participation record at the 18th International SCHWIND User Meeting: Almost 260 attendees from more than 50 countries met in Hamburg from January 23 to 25, 2020. The SCHWIND user family experienced two fully packed days with high quality lectures, intensive workshops, and in-depth exchange of experience. The attendees greatly appreciated that the program provided sufficient opportunities for dialogue and discussion.
The main topic of the user meeting was the SCHWIND ATOS femtosecond laser. Aspects such as centration and pupil offset, treatment planning and technical insights were presented and discussed. Another presentation focused on the precise and reliable treatment outcomes achieved so far with lenticule extraction using the SmartSight procedure (SCHWIND ATOS) and with FemtoLASIK (SCHWIND ATOS and SCHWIND AMARIS). Even practical aspects were not forgotten. During the entire program, the physicians were invited to gain hands-on experience in the wetlab. Many users took the opportunity to perform lenticule extraction and flap creation on porcine eyes.
Amongst the key issues were also experiences with the touchless SmartSurfACE /TransPRK technology, including the treatment of low or high myopia as well as tips for pain management. Furthermore, the presentations about customised treatments, along with examples of when and how to efficiently use the treatment, featured highly on the agenda. In addition, pros and cons of PresbyLASIK were discussed and long-term outcomes with SCHWIND PresbyMAX® were presented. All sessions were moderated by experienced SCHWIND users.
The “Grand Rounds” session completed the program of the 18th SCHWIND User Meeting. In line with the motto “Everything you always wanted to know about laser vision correction (but were afraid to ask)”, all questions were collected anonymously and answered by the experts of the respective field in the plenary. With great commitment and based on their experience, many SCHWIND users participated in the discussion and were involved in finding a solution.
"The 18th SCHWIND User Meeting was once again a complete success. The great response, the high quality of the lectures and the commitment of our users to openly discuss their opinions provided an ideal platform for advancing refractive corneal surgery“, commented CEO Rolf Schwind.