For patients suffering from glaucoma, self-administering the various treatments, in particular the drops, is often complicated. An ophthalmologist and his team have succeeded in developing a contact lens, which would be able to slowly diffuse the treatment into the eyeballs of these patients.
Contact lenses could soon have another function in addition to their only current function. Indeed, according to a study published this Monday in the journal Ophthalmologycontact lenses could also be used to distribute treatments for patients suffering from glaucoma and who often struggle to self-administer their treatments, in particular drops.
The idea is not new, only the researchers were hitherto faced with a major obstacle, the development of a lens which delivers the active molecules gradually, and not all at once upon contact between the lens and the cornea. It is precisely on this obstacle that the ophthalmologist Joseph B. Ciolino of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital has focused, who seems to have succeeded in developing a slow-release treatment.
With his team, the ophthalmologist succeeded in developing a lens covered with a layer of latanoprost, a drug for glaucoma generally administered in the form of eye drops, which is distributed there around the perimeter of the lens. Slowly dissolving polymers make it possible not to administer the active molecules all at once, but gradually and uniformly, as was the case in the eyes of the four monkeys who served as subjects for the study.
Thanks to such a device, it would be possible to improve the prevention and management of the administration of treatments for ophthalmic diseases, by removing a certain number of brakes for patients who suffer from these diseases. They often complain of pain when administering drops, or even forget to put them on at regular intervals. » If we can fix the problem of non-adherence to treatment, we could save millions of glaucoma patients from blindness“, explains Joseph B. Ciolino.
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