Insights in the ocular surface microbiome are still at an early stage and many more questions remain unanswered compared with other human‐associated microbial communities. The current knowledge on the human microbiome changed our viewpoint on bacteria and human health and significantly enhanced our understanding of human pathophysiology. Also in ocular medicine, microbiome research might impact treatment. Here, we summarize the current knowledge on ocular microbiome research with a particular focus on potential confounding factors and their effects on microbiome composition. Moreover, we present the ocular surface core microbiome based on current available data and defined it as genera present in almost half of the published control cohorts with a relative abundance of at least 1%.

Trabeculectomy induced a small but statistically significant shift in astigmatism with-the-rule after 6 months. The spherical equivalent did not change compared with the preoperative value. Most often, glasses will not need to be changed after trabeculectomy.

Purpose To clarify the short-term effect of topical anesthetics on 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid amplicon sequencing results in ocular surface microbiome research. Methods Both eyes of 24 eligible volunteers undergoing general anesthesia were sampled. Before sampling, a drop of artificial tears or a drop of topical anesthetic was applied in a randomized way. By using artificial tears as a control, we assured blinding of the executer and took a potential diluting effect into account. Bacterial DNA was extracted using the QIAGEN RNeasy PowerMicrobiome Kit with specific adaptations. Amplified DNA was sequenced with the Illumina MiSeq sequencing platform. Results Four sample pairs were excluded due to low yield of bacterial DNA. In the remaining 20 sample pairs, no differences were observed with topical anesthetics at the levels of amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), phylum, genera, or alpha and beta diversity. Weighted UniFrac distance confirmed that the intraindividual distance between the right and left eye was smaller than the effect of the topical anesthetic. Interestingly, however, we identified Cutibacterium as a potential discriminative biomarker for topical anesthetic use. Overall, a significantly higher number of observed reads were assigned to genera with Gram-positive characteristics. Conclusions Based on our targeted, double-blinded, within-subject study, topical anesthetics do not affect the overall sequencing results but display a specific effect on Cutibacterium . When comparing research results, the impact of topical anesthetics on prevalence and abundance of Cutibacterium should be considered. Translational Relevance Understanding and standardization of sampling techniques are indispensable to properly execute clinical microbiome research.

Trabeculectomy with a fornix-based conjunctival flap closed by 4 corneal groove-embedded sutures results in a low complication rate. This safe suturing technique induces a transient shift of with-the-rule astigmatism, reverting to the preoperative values within 3 months of surgery. Adjustments to refractive correction are recommended to be postponed until after this period.

Comparative reports on (T-)ICL are either equal or superior over LASIK in terms of visual performance (safety, efficacy, predictability, and stability), higher-order aberrations, and contrast sensitivity for myopia and astigmatism >−3 D.