Last June saw the 46th edition of the National Congress of the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR), held in Barcelona, which featured the contribution of Dr. José Nieto Enríquez, an ophthalmologist specializing in ocular plastic surgery at the Institut de la Màcula i de la Retina, who spoke about the relationship between respiratory disorders and other pathologies.
Specifically, the Institut de la Màcula specialist explained the relationship between ocular disorders and sleep apnoea syndrome and its treatment. This contribution to this edition of the Congress was made as a result of an article published in 2009 in collaboration with another Institut physician, Dr. Badal, in which both specialists addressed the implications of certain eye disorders with the interruption of breathing during sleep.
In recent years, this link had been established solely and exclusively with heart disease, but Dr. Nieto and Dr. Badal’s research highlighted other symptoms such as glaucoma, floppy eyelid syndrome or non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy.
In addition, at the conference the experts also talked about the relationship between cancer and epilepsy with other respiratory diseases.
The study concludes that a multidisciplinary approach is essential with the participation of the ophthalmologist together with the primary care physician and the sleep specialist.