{"id":26779,"date":"2026-10-15T20:56:04","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T16:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/?p=26779"},"modified":"2026-10-15T20:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T16:56:18","slug":"ophthalmologist-tina-jikurashvili-at-the-international-euretina-congress-latest-breakthroughs-and-prospects-in-retinal-disease-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/ophthalmologist-tina-jikurashvili-at-the-international-euretina-congress-latest-breakthroughs-and-prospects-in-retinal-disease-management\/","title":{"rendered":"Ophthalmologist Tina Jikurashvili at the International EURETINA Congress: Latest Breakthroughs and Prospects in Retinal Disease Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

The International EURETINA<\/a> Congress brought together world-leading specialists, researchers, and innovators in the field.<\/span> The event’s primary focus was exploring cutting-edge advancements in diagnosing, treating, and restoring vision for retinal conditions.<\/span> The scientific program placed particular emphasis on age-related macular degeneration, gene therapy, artificial intelligence, retinal imaging, and surgical innovations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"At the congress, ophthalmologist Tina Jikurashvili represented Georgia as a nation actively implementing and utilizing state-of-the-art approaches to treat age-related macular degeneration.<\/span> During the event, she had the opportunity to explore firsthand the latest global trends in the management of retinal diseases.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Tell us about the EURETINA Congress.<\/span> What major breakthroughs would you highlight?<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s EURETINA Congress in Vienna proved truly outstanding, impressive, and packed with innovation.<\/span> In terms of managing retinal diseases, I would highlight three major, revolutionary directions:<\/span><\/p>\n

1.<\/span> <\/strong>Next-generation, extended-duration anti-VEGF therapies:<\/strong> These include high-dose aflibercept and faricimab.<\/span> Particularly impressive is the continuous-delivery intraocular micro-implant (Susvimo), which delivers small doses of medication continuously for six months.<\/span> As a result, patients only need to visit a doctor and refill the implant twice a year, dramatically reducing the treatment burden.<\/span><\/p>\n

2.<\/span> <\/strong>Managing late-stage dry macular degeneration (geographic atrophy):<\/strong> The emergence of complement inhibitors (pegcetacoplan, avacincaptad pegol) has made it possible to significantly slow the progression of what was previously an untreatable disease.<\/span><\/p>\n

3.<\/span> <\/strong>Innovative approaches to treating inherited dystrophies:<\/strong> Advances in optogenetics and genetic engineering offer real and promising prospects for managing advanced, severe cases.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alongside these fundamental medical breakthroughs, artificial intelligence was showcased at this year’s EURETINA congress as an everyday tool for physicians: it now calculates fluid in retinal layers with micron precision and predicts the progression pathways of atrophy.<\/span> AI-powered robotic platforms (such as Preceyes, LUCA, and others) are deployed for ultra-high-precision surgical procedures, including gene therapy delivery and vascular cannulation.<\/span> Large language models (LLMs) and platforms like RetinAI are already assisting clinicians in decision-making, risk assessment, and the rapid stratification of patients for clinical trials.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the congress, you represented Georgia.<\/span> Where does our country currently stand in the treatment of age-related macular degeneration, and how have modern approaches transformed the standard of care?<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In Georgia, retinoscopy is advancing in full compliance with international guidelines.<\/span> Today, world-class diagnostics are available here\u2014high-resolution OCT (optical coherence tomography) and OCT angiography, allowing us to detect diseases at the earliest, asymptomatic stage.<\/span><\/p>\n

In treatment, we strictly adhere to the modern “Treat and Extend” protocol.<\/span> This means a fully tailored approach: we gradually extend the intervals between injections, thereby shielding patients from recurrence and preserving their vision over the long term.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, we are actively introducing cutting-edge vision rehabilitation methods for patients with dry-form conditions.<\/span> Since injectable treatments for geographic atrophy are currently unavailable here, we achieve disease stabilization through photobiomodulation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, when the retina is already damaged and a patient experiences low vision, we utilize specialized optical\/rehabilitative low-vision glasses.<\/span> These enable individuals to move around independently once again, read, recognize loved ones, and maintain their social and professional lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most promising fields generating significant interest is gene therapy.<\/span> What stage is this field at today, and what does the latest evidence show?<\/span> <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Gene therapy is the near future of ophthalmology.<\/span> Its core concept is \u201ca single intervention with long-lasting results.\u201d<\/span> For rare inherited diseases, an FDA-approved drug (Luxturna) has already been available for years.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), gene therapy in this area is currently undergoing Phase II and Phase III clinical trials (such as RGX-314 and 4D-150).<\/span><\/p>\n

The latest evidence shows that the gene delivered into the cell compels the eye to produce the therapeutic protein itself, slashing the need for repeat injections in patients by 70\u201385%.<\/span> While this approach is not yet routine practice, it is poised to substantially and fundamentally transform the standard of care for retinal diseases in the coming years.<\/span><\/p>\n



<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The International EURETINA Congress brought together world-leading specialists, researchers, and innovators in the field. The event’s primary focus was exploring cutting-edge advancements in diagnosing, treating, and restoring vision for retinal conditions. The scientific program placed particular emphasis on age-related macular degeneration, gene therapy, artificial intelligence, retinal imaging, and surgical innovations. At the congress, ophthalmologist Tina […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":26781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1653],"tags":[7448,7440,7449,7450],"class_list":["post-26779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-interview","tag-age-related-macular-degeneration","tag-euretina-2026","tag-retinal-diseases","tag-tina-jikurashvili"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26787,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26779\/revisions\/26787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}