News Briefs Archive

The Eye Drops that May Replace Both Glasses & LASIK Surgery

May 2, 2018

The day may not be far off when patients are prescribed eye drops instead of glasses or refractive surgery to correct vision, according to reporting by Melissa Matthews in Newsweek.

The technology behind the eye drops relies on something known as nanotechnology, a field in which materials are re-shaped “near the teeny, tiny molecular level to create new materials or structures.” The materials in that “teeny, tiny” reshaped state are known as nanoparticles, and those nanoparticles are being used to develop everything from sunscreens to cancer screening tools…to eye drops.

Ophthalmologist David Smadja of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem used nanoparticles to correct vision, Matthews reports. Along with scientists at Bar-Ilan University, they developed eye drops filled with nanoparticles to treat near- and far-sighted patients. The drops have not yet been tested on humans, but a clinical trial is set to determine whether the solution works as well in people as it does in animals, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The drops are currently only shown to correct mild near- and far-sightedness in animals, but improvements could be made for more significant correction needs. “You never know with optimization they might be able to expand the refractive range,” Matthews quotes SUNY Stony Brook Medical ophthalmologist Robert Honkanen as saying.

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