Retina Roundup: Your APVRS 2025 Scientific Primer

A fast-pass to the sharpest sessions and hottest retina buzz at APVRS 2025.

If you’re heading to Manila for the 18th Congress of the Asia-Pacific Vitreo-Retina Society (APVRS 2025), prepare for three days of retina revelations, global debates and enough clinical pearls to fill a very stylish Filipino bayong. From gender equity to gene therapy, lasers to last-mile care, this year’s program is a panoramic snapshot of where retinal care is headed and who’s leading the charge.

Pack your conference shoes (comfortable, obviously), your curiosity and maybe a backup power bank. Here’s your preview of the themes that will shape this year’s congress.

Women in retina take center stage

APVRS kicks off with a morning that’s less “symposium” and more “global movement.” The Women in Retina session is shaping up to be a power-packed look at how women across the region are reshaping the field, and the roadblocks still in need of bulldozing.

Expect stories of grit and reinvention:

Lessons from building vitreoretinal fellowship centers in the Philippines’ National Eye Referral Center
The surge (and struggles) of female VR specialists in Indonesia
Japan’s persistent gender gap
Mentorship, mastery and the fine art of balancing ophthalmic ambition with real-world life transitions

A feel-good opener? Yes. But also a clear signal that APVRS is prioritizing equity, representation and what happens when you give brilliant women the mic.

Theme #1: The rise of women leaders and the recalibration of gender equity in retina.

Sustainability grows up (and gets clinical)

Sustainability sessions at medical meetings can sometimes feel like recycling reminders with a side of climate guilt. Not this year.

The Sustainability Innovations symposium digs into pragmatic, evidence-based strategies tailored to ophthalmology’s real-world constraints. Think: greener OR workflows, waste reduction that doesn’t compromise sterility, and how to future-proof your practice without asking your staff to walk to work.

With sustainability mandates quickly moving from “nice-to-have” to “non-negotiable,” this track plants APVRS firmly in the global conversation.

Theme #2: Eco-conscious ophthalmology steps out of the theoretical and into the operating room.

READ MORE: APVRS 2025 Coverage

The GA boom

If 2024 was the year geographic atrophy hit headlines, 2025 is the year it becomes impossible to ignore. The Astellas (Tokyo, Japan)-sponsored lunch symposium—All Eyes on Geographic Atrophy—covers everything from early detection to imaging nuances to real-world insights from clinical trials.

Expect this theme to echo throughout the meeting: GA is no longer “the next big thing.” It’s here. And everyone wants to know how early they can catch it, how confidently they can diagnose it, and how best to manage patients when treatment landscapes keep shifting like Manila’s December weather.

Theme #3: GA moves into the mainstream, reshaping the diagnostic and therapeutic conversation.

Laser renaissance

Lasers are having a bit of a glow-up. The Current Roles of Lasers in Retinal Disease session revisits classic applications, explores emerging innovations and wraps with an interactive forum guaranteed to spark debate (and maybe a few laser-pointer jokes).

Theme #4: Lasers prove they’re not relics; they’re the reliable workhorses entering a new era.

Cross-specialty collaboration

Day 2 opens with a deep dive into secondary glaucoma due to retinal pathology: a clinical no-man’s-land where retina and glaucoma must share the map (and the patient).

Between when to refer, when to co-manage and when to call for backup, this session formalizes what many ophthalmologists already know: siloed care is so last decade.

Theme #5: Co-management becomes the standard, not the exception.

Tackling the “last mile” in retina care

This might be the sleeper hit of the conference. Last Miles of Retinal Care draws on experiences from India, Singapore, China, the Pacific Islands, the Philippines and the AAO—plus the role of academic journals in improving public health. The session zeroes in on what it really takes to deliver retinal services to aging populations, underserved communities and geographically scattered patients.

It’s not glamorous, but it’s urgent. Telehealth, workforce shortages, digital innovations and national programs collide in one of the most globally minded sessions on the agenda.

Theme #6: Accessibility takes the spotlight, because retinal care is only as good as the system that delivers it.

The diabetic eye disease problem (and promise)

Diabetes continues to dominate retinal disease burdens across the Asia-Pacific, so it’s no surprise that APVRS is giving it the limelight.

The Therapeutic Landscape for Diabetic Eye Disease symposium promises updates on imaging, DR screening, DME management, surgical complexities and what’s next in treatment pipelines. Add in some video demos and a look at what’s on the horizon, and you have a session that’s as practical as it is forward-looking.

Theme #7: Diabetic eye disease remains a defining challenge—and innovation hotspot—for retinal specialists.

Medical retina gets spicy

If you enjoy a bit of intellectual sparring, Challenges and Controversies in Medical Retina will not disappoint. Four debates tackle:

Prophylactic topical antibiotics
Polyp closure in PCV
Stopping treatment for nAMD
Tolerating fluid in nAMD

Then there’s the non-debate firecrackers: treatment duration, patient adherence and the ever-thorny anti-VEGF–IOP conundrum.

This is retinal medicine’s version of “fight me” discourse: civil, evidence-based and guaranteed to send you back to the clinic rethinking at least one long-held belief.

Theme #8: Debate culture makes a comeback as retina confronts its grey zones.

Trauma takes the spotlight

Posterior segment trauma is not for the faint of heart, but Day 3 opens with a formidable, surgical-heavy program covering everything from blunt trauma imaging to endoscopic vitrectomy to the eternally difficult question: repair vs. evisceration vs. enucleation?

This is retina at its most high-stakes…and most collaborative.

Theme #9: Trauma management refines its playbook with new imaging, new techniques and new decision frameworks.

What’s next in therapies

The Upcoming Therapies for Retinal Disease session reads like a who’s-who of future treatments. Gene therapy via alternative delivery routes? Check. Photobiomodulation? Check. Port delivery systems and sustained-release implants? Absolutely. Biosimilars? They’re maturing fast.

If you plan to brag about being “ahead of the curve,” this is the room to sit in.

Theme #10: Retinal therapeutics accelerate toward longer-lasting, less burdensome and more personalized solutions.

Complications of anterior segment surgery

The APVRS anterior-posterior handshake is strong this year. The session on Posterior Segment Complications of Anterior Segment Surgery gives surgeons from both sides of the ocular aisle a shared space to troubleshoot retinal detachment risks, dropped nuclei, suprachoroidal hemorrhage, endophthalmitis, intrascleral IOL fixation, UGH syndrome and more.

It’s equal parts prevention, intervention and damage control.

Theme #11: Anterior and posterior segment collaboration strengthens as shared complications demand shared expertise.

Hands-On Innovation with Appasamy Associates at APVRS-PAO 2025

ROP protocols reimagined

Retinopathy of prematurity remains one of the region’s most sensitive—and rapidly evolving—fields. This year’s Revisiting ROP Protocols session covers:

New risk factors
Advances in diagnostics
FFA for detecting reactivation post–anti-VEGF
Emerging therapies and clinical trials
Building national ROP programs
Global strategies for the future

It’s an ambitious lineup signaling a push toward unified, tech-enabled, future-ready ROP care.

Theme #12: ROP care enters a new era of precision, collaboration and national-scale planning.

So what’s the big picture?

Across all three days, a few threads stitch the meeting together:

Equity, whether gender equity, access equity or global disparities
Sustainability of healthcare, of workflow, of long-term patient management
Innovation in diagnostics, therapeutics, surgery and system design
Collaboration across subspecialties, regions and professional generations
Translation, bringing advances from trial to clinic, and from city centers to remote islands

APVRS 2025 in Manila promises a conference where tough questions get asked, new solutions get showcased, and no clinician leaves without at least one “I need to rethink this on Monday” moment.

And if you manage to sneak in a sunset walk by Manila Bay between sessions, well, that’s just good conference planning.

Editor’s Note: This content is intended exclusively for healthcare professionals. It is not intended for the general public. Products or therapies discussed may not be registered or approved in all jurisdictions, including Singapore. The 18th Congress of the Asia-Pacific Vitreo-Retina Society (APVRS 2025) is being held in conjunction with the Philippine Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Congress from 12-14 December in Manila, Philippines.