And yet more news on how contact lenses can be used to deliver medicines. Earlier I talked about contact lenses that can deliver eye medications without affecting people’s vision. Today I’m excited to report a new type of contact lens that has been designed specifically to treat injured soldiers on battlefields.
40% of injuries sustained by soldiers in war are to the eyes. At the moment, eye-drops are the only method of treating these injuries, but in a busy field hospital, it can be difficult for those looking after the wounded to find the time to administer eye drops, especially when you consider all the other wounds they are trying to treat.
As a result of this, many soldiers lose some or all of their vision.
Contact Lens to the Rescue
So scientists affiliated with St. John’s Medical Research Institute have come up with a prototype lens that will deliver the anti-biotics necessary to help save sight in a constant, measured fashion.
The Institute has received $4.8 billion research grant to help fund its studies into treating eye injuries on the battlefield.
The new lens is clear in the middle but white around the edges from the microscopic fibres embedded in the lens. These fibres have been soaked in a form of prednisone, a steroid and current tests have shown it to give measured doses for up to seven days.
This would make it far easier for medical staff to treat eye injuries as it would take hardly any time at all to insert contact lenses into the injured soldier’s eyes whilst looking after the soldier’s other wounds and then let the lens take care of the eye injury.
Potentially, this could save the sight of lots of soldiers, but not only that, it could also be used in everyday life too. Now that really would be a sight for sore eyes.
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