New device treats glaucoma from within the eye

The eye-disease glaucoma has now marked itself as the second-leading reason of blindness, following cataracts. In order to combat it in an easier way, scientists have created a new drug delivery system that can help treat glaucoma from directly inside the eye.

According to American Academy of Ophthalmology, glaucoma affects over 60 million people worldwide with an expectation to rise up to 76 million by 2020 and to 112 million by 2040. The disease harms the optic nerve and can lead to vision loss or permanent blindness. The general procedure to treat glaucoma involves a strict schedule of medicated eye drops, which if not followed, might make way for the disease to progress into its degenerative stages.

Thus, a new drug delivery system was created in which the device is implanted to the patient’s eye, where it slowly gives out an anti-glaucoma drug over a time period of six months until it completely dissolves. The device contains two layers of biodegradable film with a layer of medication pressed in between.

Wireless eyes for the blind

The device implant makes sure that the greatest amount of medication is delivered to the most effective areas, as compared to the general eye-drop treatment that lets only tiny quantities of the drug to be passed on to the needed area and the rest is drained into the bloodstream that is later filtered out of the body, reported Futurism.

Though the device has shown promising results in the initial tests conducted on animals, it still requires further research to ensure if the treatments would be harmless and effective for humans.

Publishing the research in the Journal of Controlled Release, Dr. Tejal Desai said, “While there have been important advances in eye drop formulations, our device substantially reduces the burden of patient compliance in a safe and effective way.”

According to Medicalxpress, hoping to enhance results for patients, Desai said, “Next steps will involve scaling up, developing device fabrication procedures that comply with current good manufacturing practices and testing the device in larger animals, before moving on to clinical trials.”