A new treatment for axial myopia or nearsightedness has been developed by James Su, a graduate student researcher, co-advised by MSE and Bioengineering Professor Kevin Healy and School of Optometry Professor Christine Wildsoet. This promising treatment is based on a synthetic bio material which is known as hydrogel. 
A report shows that high Axial myopia is the seventh ranking cause of blindness in the United Sates of America and the fourth ranking cause in Hong Kong.
Myopia is a condition in which the eyeball elongate backwards due to the intraocular pressure formed inside the eye, like a balloon squishing back when squeezed around its sides. In most cases, this just throws the eye’s focus off, requiring corrective lenses, but high axial myopia can lead to blinding complications such as retinal detachment, macular degeneration, cataracts and glaucoma. In such cases sufferers has to rely on thick glasses or LASIK surgery. But even LASIK might be only a temporary fix as eyesight continues to decline. The only resolution to this problem is to strenghten the eyeball against the internal pressure so that it could resist elongation.
James Su, Professor Kevin Healy and Professor Christine Wildsoet discovered a more advanced, biodegradable material known as “functionalized biomimetic hydrogel,” which could be injected in the eye to increase the strength of eyeball.
This material is an inject-able liquid at cool temperature that becomes a soft rubber-like solid at body temperature. The surgical procedure, begins with a dose of local anesthesia; then the hydrogel is injected into the back of the eyeball under the Tenon’s capsule, a thin sheath that surrounds the posterior eyeball over the sclera. At first the gel conforms the shape of the eye wall, then warms up and stiffens, adding strength. Because the hydrogel never enters the vitreous humor or touches the cornea, the procedure is safer and less invasive than the existing operation.
Some of the benefits of the hydrogel are that it could be formulated to contain and release drugs to enhance treatment. If an allergic reaction occurs, the gel could be easily removed. And the major benefit is that patients will require injections just twice a year or less, a simple outpatient procedure.
"This reduces lifetime vision care costs, and of course it’s better for the patient for other reasons as well.” says Su.
Currently as a first phase it is undergoing animal testing. Soon it will reach to its second phase where it will be used in a preventive way for children, diagnosed to be progressing towards high myopia.
Source: innovations
Filed under Eye Diseases, Eye Surgery, Eye Treatment, Improved Vision, Lasik Eye Surgery, Myopia | Tags: Axial myopia, blindness., cataracts, Cornea, eye, functionalized biomimetic hydrogel, Glaucoma, Intraocular pressure, Lasik, Macular Degeneration, Professor Christine Wildsoet, Professor Kevin Healy, School, sclera | Comment Below
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