A team from the University of Michigan has completed the first clinical trial of a device which can rapidly cool the eye to significantly improve patient comfort and reduce side effects of intravitreal injection therapy (IVT).
IVT has transformed the treatment of a number of previously blinding diseases, resulting in a dramatic increase in the number of ocular injections given every year. But IVT has limitations, including patient discomfort, ocular bleeding, and the time constraints of treating the high volume of patients requiring anaesthesia prior to injection therapy.
A University of Michigan Medical School team has worked closely with University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering to design the Cryo-Anaesthesia Device to improve patient comfort, reduce side effects, and increase physician efficiency during IVT delivery. The handheld instrument is nonpharmacologic (doesn’t rely on drugs) as it uses a thermoelectric feedback loop to give rapid, precisely controlled cooling to the eye’s surface, providing adequate anaesthesia in 30-45 seconds. It maintains highly accurate temperature control, a timed lockout mechanism prevents excessive cooling and proprietary, single-use sterile tips prevent infection.
