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Eye drops could replace glasses or surgery for longsightedness, study says

95 points by giuliomagnifico

by cianmm

6 subcomments

If they invented this for shortsightedness, which I have very slightly, I would pay a huge amount of money (in European medical cost terms) for it.
I mildly dislike wearing glasses but need them or I have a headache within an hour, I can’t overcome my blink reactions to put in contacts (after several hour long sessions with my optometrist) and my shortsightedness isn’t strong enough to convince myself to go for laser eye surgery.

by atombender

0 subcomment

Pilocarpine has been already approved in the US since 2021 under the trade name Vuity (pilocarpine hydrochloride 1.25%), which was discussed on HN [1]. Another version, Qlosi (pilocarpine HC 0.4%), was approved in 2023.
It seems that this formulation differs by adding naproxen, an NSAID. I'm not sure why they believe this is needed.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29509163

by subarctic

1 subcomments

TIL Brits say long and shortsighted instead of far and nearsighted. In my English "shortsighted" means poor planning

by 8bitsrule

0 subcomment

> The drops contain pilocarpine, a drug that constricts the pupils and contracts the muscle that controls the shape of the eye’s lens to enable focus on objects at different distances...
I wonder if using that might be dangerous for people with people with conditions that could lead to macular damage ... (by adding pressure)

by sroussey

0 subcomment

by master_crab

0 subcomment

by russellbeattie

1 subcomments

I'm nearsighted with simple myopia and most of my life I've used contacts for distance vision. I never had any problems reading close up with my contacts in. Then I turned 50, and within a year, I suddenly needed to use either reading glasses with my contacts or bifocal glasses in order to both see long distance and use a computer or my phone.
It wasn't a slow decline. One day my eyes worked like they had for my entire life, and the next my eyes went wonky. Getting older sucks! Without glasses, I can still read books and my phone just fine. I've just lost my "middle vision" of about an arm's length away.
Anyways, all my fifty-something peers are going through the same thing. It's a really inconvenient life change. I imagine something like this would be popular if it were more well known. My optometrist didn't say anything at all about it.
Side note: Laser surgery can only fix one type of vision problem. So if I were to go in to fix my myopia, I'd still have presbyopia (age related hyperopia), or vice versa. There doesn't seem to be a one-size-fits-all surgery for vision.

by jokethrowaway

0 subcomment

Very nice, albeit I'm still waiting for Ocumetics (for 8+ years) to come up with a permanent solution for both shortsightedness and longsightedness. It's a replacement for your natural lense with an accomodating lens - but it should definitively give you great vision at any distance.
They just started human testing after years of doing and redoing their solution. I assume they're being somehow paid by the industry not to release too early, because even the first iteration had great results and it would have been life changing.
Hopefully this is not another RISUG and we see some innovation reach the market.