TO THE EDITOR:
I have read and enjoyed your publication for years, finding much valuable information. I was therefore mortified to open your September issue of Review of Ophthalmology to find on page 7 a full page ad for "Similasan Cataract Care Eye Drops." I cannot believe that your publication would accept an ad for this "homeopathic" remedy (read: water). What respectable ophthalmologist would be expected to recommend this useless solution to patients? If the manufacturer wishes to advertise this in a lay publication to steal money from an unsuspecting readership, so be it, but I simply cannot believe that Review would accept this ad.
I got a particular chuckle from the small print, which recommends using two to three drops in each eye four to five times a day (i.e., up to 30 drops a day) but warns that it could take "several months" (and how many dollars?) to notice any effect. Frankly, I feel insulted that such an ad was directed towards me.
Richard S. Ross, MD
Sewell, N.J.
To the Editor:
This is a reply to Elliot M.Kirstein, OD, regarding co-management. (Letters to the Editor, June 2005, p. 26) I am pleased that Dr. Kirstein has discovered the "best surgeons" in Cincinnati. With the current pathetically low fee for this delicate operation [cataract surgery], I would hope that he waives all co-management billing so that these great surgeons receive the full fee for their good work, since the patients are returned to his care in excellent shape, needing only a refraction. Otherwise, as is usually the case, referral of patients to "super surgeons" in a co-management relationship usually involves the optometrist billing insurance for a portion of the surgical fee. With truly excellent surgeons doing the work, co-management is a sham term for fee splitting, pure and simple.
Glendon Moody, MD
Tempe, Ariz.
