CONTACT LENSES TODAY

March 14, 2004

Contact Lenses Today® is edited by Dr. Joseph T. Barr and the staff of Contact Lens Spectrum. This week CLToday® reaches over 10,000 readers in 74 countries.


Grand Opening of Vistakon's New Educational Facility
Vistakon has launched The Vision Care Institute of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. in an effort to enhance the technical training of students and practitioners. Each class consists of three days of intensive teaching and interactive labs, tours of the Vistakon manufacturing facilities, instruction from leading optometric educators and an opportunity to meet with Vistakon representatives. Howard B. Purcell, O.D., F.A.A.O., is director of The Vision Care Institute, which also boasts the "Exam Room of the Future." Marco Technologies designed and developed this state-of-the-art exam room that offers attendees the opportunity to experience the latest developments in examination equipment, including automated refraction systems and wavefront analyzers. Also, because the training is focused on Vistakon's specialty contact lenses, the company covers all travel arrangements and accommodations. Vistakon estimates that half of the approximately 1,100 fourth-year optometry school students will attend The Vision Care Institute in 2004.

1-800 Contacts Acquires VisionTec
1-800 Contacts has acquired VisionTec, which manufactures low-cost disposable contact lenses and is known for its spin-molding manufacturing process whereby the lens automatically ends up in the final packaging. 1-800 Contacts has agreed to pay a per-unit royalty for a period of 10 years to the former VisionTec shareholders. BTG, the company that sold VisionTec, will continue to receive royalties from sales of VisionTec's disposable contact lenses for that period.

New Hybrid CL in the Lineup
Quarter Lambda Technologies, Inc. has developed a high-Dk hybrid contact lens (SynergEyes) using Paragon HDS 100 GP center with a 31% water content nonionic hydrogel skirt. It has a 14.5mm diameter with an 8.2mm rigid center that features a non-rotating platform that facilitates front surface toric correction for residual cylinder. The SynergEyes lens is currently undergoing 510K clinical investigation for three indications. Twenty-three sites are participating in the multisite clinical trials using three lens designs, which are intended to be used for naturally occurring ametropia, keratoconus and post-surgical indications. The keratoconus series uses a continuous aspheric base curve from lens center to periphery. The post surgical series is indicated when the cornea is rendered oblate from surgery or mechanical trauma and is offered in two return zone depths for each base curve. Additional clinical trials are underway using the hybrid platform for wavefront-guided correction of low- and high-order aberrations.

Scientists Move Closer to Restoring Sight
After conducting experiments on the damaged optic nerves of rats, researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School say they've made an important advance in regenerating damaged nerve fibers. They reported their results in the February 18 2004 issue of Journal of Neuroscience. The researchers combined two therapies (activating growth in nerve cells and overcoming the inhibitory signaling) and got dramatic regeneration that wasn't enough to restore the rats' vision but is about triple the amount of regeneration achieved by stimulating growth factors alone. According to one of the researchers, the hurdle is getting the optic nerve fibers to link up to the correct areas in the brain. They plan to continue trying to repair damaged optic nerves to restore vision and will work on retaining the proper organization of fiber projections to the brain.

So, what is HYDRACLEAR . . .?
ACUVUE ADVANCE with HYDRACLEAR launched in January and it is already creating tremendous success for eyecare practitioners and their patients. In several instances, patients were so excited about the all-day comfort they experienced while wearing ACUVUE ADVANCE with HYDRACLEAR that they took the time to call their eyecare practitioner to say, "Thank you!"
So what is the HYDRACLEAR difference? HYDRACLEAR is VISTAKON'S brand name for a proprietary internal wetting agent that permeates the ACUVUE ADVANCE contact lens, creating a silky, smooth feel. HYDRACLEAR functions both as a humectant (moisture-loving agent) and as a lubricant. Its humectant nature provides the capacity to bind moisture and presents a wettable lens to the ocular surface.
Learn more by visiting http://www.ecp.acuvue.com

--ADVERTISING

NEI Funds Five-Year Research Award
The National Eye Institute (NEI) has awarded Loretta Szczotka-Flynn, OD, MS, a five-year Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award, which began March 1, 2004 and is also supported by CIBA Vision. Dr. Szczotka-Flynn is an associate professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at Case Western Reserve University (CASE) and is director of Contact Lens Service at University Hospitals of Cleveland. The Award will allow protected time for Dr. Szczotka-Flynn to complete a PhD in epidemiology from the Case School of Medicine where targeted training in biostatistics, epidemiology and clinical research will directly be applied to the development of clinical trials in contact lens-related corneal diseases. Dr. Szczotka-Flynn will also complete a study aimed to provide a better scientific understanding of the factors and mechanisms of inflammatory and mechanical complications associated with silicone hydrogel continuous wear contact lens use.

Levy Takes Executive Position with B&L
Bausch & Lomb has appointed Dr. Brian Levy to the position of corporate vice president and chief medical officer. As such, he'll be responsible for pre-clinical, clinical and medical affairs for all Bausch & Lomb businesses worldwide. Most recently, Dr. Levy served as vice president of clinical and medical affairs for B&L.

Abstract: Ptosis and Contact Lens Wear
Researchers conducted a retrospective study of 15 consecutive patients seen over four years (1997 to 2001) in the private practice of an oculoplastic surgeon to determine the clinical features of blepharoptosis associated with contact lens wear, including the type of contact lens and the duration of wear. Four (27%) patients were wearing GP lenses and the rest were wearing PMMA hard lenses. Thirteen patients (87%) had been wearing their lenses for more than 17 years. Eleven (73%) patients underwent ptosis repair where aponeurosis thinning/dehiscence was noted. When compared with patients who presented over the same period with other causes of blepharoptosis (traumatic, myopathic, anophthalmic and involutional), the researchers found contact lens wear to be an uncommon cause of ptosis across all age groups. The majority of contact lens wearers presenting with blepharoptosis gave a history of prolonged use of hard contact lenses. One explanation for this, according to researchers, would be the mechanisms of removal of hard contact lenses. They concluded that contact lens-associated ptosis is an uncommon cause of acquired ptosis across all age groups.
Thean JH, McNab AA. Blepharoptosis in RGP Hard Contact Lens Wearers. Clinical and Experimental Optometry 2004 Jan;87(1):11-14.


Editor's Commentary: Institute is Impressive
The Vision Care Institute that our first story refers to is impressive for a number of reasons: It will provide state-of-the-art extended education to optometry students and other eyecare practitioners about contact lens and other eyecare technologies. It will teach them about communications and business skills as well. The Marco designed exam room will expose these practitioners to the latest diagnostic technology. As I visited and witnessed what will happen in this new entity, I was especially struck by how appropriate it is that all of those who are educated there will learn in the (George) Mertz Conference Room.

Fitting Tip: Improving Initial Experiences with GPs
Everyone knows that when fitting a GP lens on a patient for the first time, there's an ever-present concern about initial awareness. Granted, the initial experience of the eyelid interacting with the edge of the lens will always create an initial sensation that many consider dissatisfying. So there's no reason to let the patient suffer through this initial awareness the whole time of performing the fit and visual acuity evaluation. The next time you see the patient squirming in the chair with that pale look on his face upon feeling a GP lens for the first time, immediately remove the lens, therefore reducing their "initial awareness" to only a few moments. Upon rewetting the lens, advise the patient that the first experience of wearing these lenses is the worst, but that when you put the lens back on his eye, it won't feel as bad as it did the first time. And every time you put this in for the next few days, it'll get better and better.
--Keith Parker, NCLC
Vice President of Operations, Accu Lens, Inc.


Make Plans for the Global Orthokeratology Symposium (GOS)
(July 22-25, 2004 Toronto, Canada)
Learn how to manage and market your overnight orthokeratology practice.
http://www.gos2004.com

--ADVERTISING


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