Treatment for cataract infection

A new treatment could significantly reduce the risk of blindness and post-operative infection in cataract patients, research has revealed.

Coating an artificial lens with antibiotics could reduce the risks currently faced by cataract patients, research presented at the British Pharmaceutical Conference in Manchester showed.

Cataract surgery removes the eye's natural lens, which has become cloudy, and replaces it with an artificial one known as an intraocular lens (IOL).

A type of infection called infectious endophthalmitis is caused by bacteria entering the eye during surgery and binding itself to the artificial lens.

It is a serious but rare infection which can cause inflammation of tissues inside the eye and lead to blindness.

Researchers at the School of Pharmacy, Queen's University Belfast, hope a new type of hydrogel, which can hold the antibiotic gentamicin, can be coated on the artificial lens.

The antibiotics would gradually be released from the coating, killing bacteria in the eye.

Researcher Dr Carole Parsons said: "Incorporating gentamicin into the hydrogels significantly reduced bacteria sticking to the IOL surface, indicating that these antibiotic-impregnated hydrogels would be highly beneficial as IOL coatings."

Laboratory-based research proved the concept works and researchers now need to carry out pre-clinical and clinical testing.

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