New tech aims at faster eyesight recuperation

Print 23 April 2018
Marchmont Innovation News

A collaborative team of researchers in the Lower Volga area, comprising scientists from the Samara University and medical practitioners from the local Research Institute for Eye Diseases, has developed a new method of preventing postsurgical complications in ophthalmology patients. 

The scientists have come up with a new curative composition and novel method of applying an anti-inflammatory drug to the eye after surgery. The breakthrough is expected to help lower the number of postsurgical complications and step up convalescence in eye surgery patients. 

Invasive surgery is one of the most widespread ways of treating eyesight problems. An estimated 650,000 eye surgeries take place in the world each year, including more than 30,000 in Russia alone. During the period of recovery the eye that has been operated on has to be treated with certain drugs. 

According to the developers, the procedure causes problems. The therapies that exist today leave it to a physician’s subjective assessment to estimate how much post-surgery drug has to be administered and where exactly (since the surrounding healthy tissue must be left intact). The lack of precision in drug quantity estimation oftentimes leads to doctors being overly cautious and giving patients an overdose. That may trigger acute postsurgical complications and protract the period of recovery. 

In Samara, the scientists suggest that microcrystalline cellulose be used as a drug carrier. 

“Using the substance will enable precisely dosed and targeted drug delivery to the eye, thus avoiding the administered drug’s toxic impact on the surrounding healthy tissue and the body as a whole,” the development team believes. 

It is expected that the new Russian microcellulose-based solution will be six or seven times less costly than a pack of currently imported medicines for postsurgical treatment which costs in excess of $350 apiece on average.

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