Eye treatment with microneedles

Treating eye disease is especially tricky because the eye is a complex place. In a recent study, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University researchers demonstrate a new means of administering treatment to the eye using needles less than a millimeter in length. Previously, the two available treatment options were eye drops for treatment on the surface of the eye and conventional needle injections to the center of the eye. The tradeoff becomes one of invasiveness for effectiveness in selecting between these two delivery methods, and each fails to deliver medication to only the intended areas. The researchers inject medications into an intermediate layer within the eye (the "suprachoroid lamina"), tissue which helps contain drugs to the affected areas. "With this technique, we are keeping the drug right where it needs to be for most therapies of interest in the back of the eye," he said.