Pediatric ophthalmology in the new millennium

I can vividly recall a weekend in the early 1970s when I attended my first national ophthalmology meeting. I was in my residency at the University of Wisconsin and had the opportunity to go to the annual spring meeting of the Chicago Ophthalmologic Society. I remember hearing the speakers during the retinal section of the conference describing the new and exciting innovati on in their subspecialty, the pars plana vitrectomy. The anterior segment a uthorities spoke excitedly about the intraocular lens, a radical new soluti on to the optical problems associated with aphakia. The first soft contact lens had been recently approved for general use, and there were glowing rep orts about its successful application in previously contact lens-intolerant patients. By that stage of my training, I had already decided on a career as a pediatric ophthalmologist. So it was with great anticipation that I aw aited the section of the program devoted to strabismus. The moderator of th ose lectures began with an acknowledgment of the great advances that had be en made in other areas of ophthalmology, and continued with, "Actually, we are not doing anything differently in the treatment of strabismus than we w ere 50 years ago." In spite of (or perhaps inspired by) those remarks, I di d indeed become a pediatric ophthalmologist.