Small implant gives hope to patients with eye disease
10:08 p.m. Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Gloria Woodward can't believe her eyes - that a small implant saved her vision.
"I’ve been doing good, a lot better,” she said. “I'm seeing things I haven't seen in years."
She has uveitis, a chronic inflammation in her eyes. The disease is not well understood and there's no cure, but keeping it under control is critical.
"If it's not controlled, one way or the other it's very likely to blur your vision and it can in severe cases cause you to go blind,” said Dr. Pauline Merrill, Ophthalmologist.
Steroids are the traditional treatment - in pill form or eye drops. But some patients, like Gloria, need regular steroid injections right in the eye.
"I have one patient who had 20 injections around the eye over the past few years and was understandably not too excited about continuing,” Merrill said.
And, she may not have to. The new implant is called retisert. It sits in the eye and slowly releases steroid medication for 1,000 days.
"So, instead of doing an injection of steroid into the back of the eye every six weeks or three months or whatever, now you can do a small surgical procedure,” Merrill said. “And then you have the steroid controlling the uveitis for almost three years."
Studies show retisert helped decrease inflammation from uveitis and improve vision. The downside is an increased risk for cataracts and glaucoma.
"That is something that we also have to be very cautious about,” Merrill said.
Gloria decided to take the risk. Now she has implants in both eyes and she's steering clear of blindness.
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