Founding Partner Ophthalmic Consultants of Long Island Rockville Centre, Long Island, New York
Patient non-compliance is one of the most difficult problems patients and clinicians face today. There are a variety of reasons that patients may not be able to deliver eye drops following ophthalmic surgery due to a number of manual dexterity issues including stroke, arthritis, tremor, Alzheimer disease, and Parkinson’s disease. At other times medication noncompliance may be due to the cost of the medication and simple forgetfulness. Providing a vehicle for continuous drug delivery eliminates the issues of non-compliance, provides a steady state of medication without peaks and troughs, as well as eliminating corneal surface epithelial toxicity due to the medication and preservatives. There are several drug delivery systems available today including sustained release drops, subconjunctival delivery, external inserts, punctal plugs and, intracameral (both aqueous and vitreous). These medications provide medications for cataract surgery and can reduce or even eliminate the need for postoperative eye drops. In addition, there is a growing pipeline of new drug delivery options on the horizon that will be available over the next several years.
Learning Objectives:
To understand the importance of drug delivery in ophthalmology
To learn about new drug delivery treatment options
To learn about the pipeline of new drug delivery medications
