Experimental Contacts May Ease Pain...
Added On : 23rd January 2012
Experimental Contacts May Ease Pain After Laser Eye Surgery Study Suggests That Lenses Laced With Pain Meds Could One Day Replace Regular Eye Drops
Researchers are developing contact lenses that may one day deliver painkilling drugs directly to the cornea after laser eye surgery.
The contact lenses rely on nanotechnology to slow the delivery of anesthetic medications.
Researchers say that if the technique works, it could eliminate the need for patients to repeatedly apply numbing eye drops after their photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) procedures.
This would represent a version of time-release which would reduce the number of drops that a patient would need, says Robert F. Steinert, MD, an eye surgeon who is professor and chair of the department of ophthalmology at the University of California at Irvine.
Steinert, who is also a spokesman for the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, reviewed a study of the new technology but was not involved in the research.
I think it would add convenience, but it probably isnt a game changer, he says, noting that most patients are currently able to control their pain after PRK by using eye drops every couple of hours for the first three days or so, and they already have to wear bandage contact lenses while their eyes heal.
Could Better Pain Relief Give PRK an Edge Over Lasik?In PRK, surgeons remove the surface of the cornea and reshape the deeper layers underneath. The outer layer eventually grows back.
Thats a bit different than Lasik, where doctors make a flap out of the outer layers of the cornea and use a laser to reshape the tissue underneath. The flap is then replaced. But it can be dislodged or dislocated if the eye is injured.
For that reason, PRK is considered to be more stable than Lasik. And it may be the only option for people who have thin corneas, dry eyes, or a condition called anterior basement membrane dystrophy. It also tends to be the preferred method for athletes and people in the military, who may be more likely to take a blow to the head.
But PRK has some drawbacks, too. Notably, it causes more pain and requires a longer healing time.
For those reasons, more people currently opt for Lasik over PRK.
But researchers say that could change if the new contacts make recovery more bearable and convenient.
There are two big benefits, says researcher Anuj Chauhan, PhD, a chemical engineer at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Patients dont have to remember to use the eye drops, so it increases compliance. And secondly, you dont have to use as much of the drug because most of the drug is going directly into the cornea.