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Delay between eye drop instillations increases efficacy
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Researchers recommend that patients with chronic conditions requiring multiple, different eye drops wait 5 minutes between administration, according to a study in Optometry and Vision Science.
Denion and colleagues assessed the combined effect of 10% phenylephrine eye drops and , using either no time interval or a 5-minute interval between drops.
One hundred sixty pupil and iris surface images were anonymized and randomly arranged before being presented to two independent observers.
The researchers found that waiting 5 minutes between two different eye drops significantly increased their combined effect, contrary to previous conclusions made by other studies.
“... for chronic treatment, as in , with multiple intraocular pressure-lowering eye drops, assuming a similar effect of waiting 5 minutes between eye drops may be very beneficial after decades of treatment,” the researchers wrote.
They propose that if two drops of different drugs are administered separately, with too small an interval between them, dilution limits the extent of absorption of both drugs as compared with a combined drug solution.
Disclosure : The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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