This introduces and describes is a unique ophthalmic drug delivery method. Its use enables drug delivery to the eye without discomfort that lasts for many hours after application.
The method, termed supracutraneous delivery, is accomplished by placing a small volume of ointment on the temporal skin of the lower eyelid. It is cosmetically-acceptible, does not require any special equipment and is patient-friendly.
Absolutely no blurring has been reported associated with supracutaneous drug delivery. Videos of the movement of the ointment taken by Dr Marshall Doane of the Eye Research Institute in Boston show the presence of the ointment vehicle in the lower meniscus of the tear film following each blink and its subsequent spread over the entire interpalpebral surface. Related changes in lipid layer thickness have not yet been measured; however, the absence of any blurring indicates it has not been changed beyon normal limits. The movement of the ointment, containing a marker component, shows it moving toward the lower margin of the lower lid following each blink. These videos will be added to this page shortly*.
Its use for delivery of a dry eye formulation has been reported (ref.1,2,3,4) It has been tested with drugts such as pilocarpine and timolol . A graph of the delivery was provided by Tsubota et al (ref.3); they used the 1% fluorescein sodium in the vehicle base use for these measurements. The graph has been duplicated below*. Note after the initial drop following appliction, then the slope from 3 to 4 hours is nearly zero order. In clinical studies, patient responses stated the effectivenesses often lasted longer that 4 hours after each application.
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3.Tsubota K, MondenY,GotoY, Shimura S. New treatment of dry eye: the effect of calcium carbonatge ointment through tye skin dellivery BJO 1999 ,83(7) 767773
