Drug-dispensing contact lens may lower eye pressure in glaucoma patients

Drug-dispensing contact lens may lower eye pressure in glaucoma patients
New York: Drug-dispensing contact lens which has been designed to deliver medication gradually to the eye may benefit glaucoma patients.

It could improve the outcomes and also lowers eye pressure in glaucoma patients that requires treatment with eye drops, which are often imprecise and difficult to self-administer The findings showed that the novel contact lens-based system uses a strategically placed drug polymer film to deliver medication gradually to the eye, is at least as effective, and possibly more so, as daily latanoprost eye drops in a pre-clinical model for glaucoma. “We found that a lower dose contact lens delivered the same amount of pressure reduction as the latanoprost drops, and a higher dose lens, interestingly enough, had better pressure reduction than the drops in our small study,” said first author Joseph Ciolino, ophthalmologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in the US. “Based on our preliminary data, the lenses have not only the potential to improve compliance for patients, but also the potential of providing better pressure reduction than the drops,” Ciolino, who is also an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, noted. Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the world. While there is no cure for glaucoma, ocular medications aim to lower pressure in the eye with the goal of preventing vision loss.