Abstract
Purpose :
Eye care professionals use diagnostic eye drops on a daily basis for their anesthetic, mydriatic and cycloplegic effects. Once opened, pharmaceutical companies recommend discarding ophthalmic drug after 28 days. However, this recommendation applies to patients who self-administrate their prescribed eye drops in a home setting1. The aim of this study was to evaluate the preservation period of ophthalmic preparations, such as Alcaine®, Mydriacyl®, Mydfrin® and Cyclogyl® in a clinical and controlled setting.
Methods :
38 primary eye care students were recruited to participate in the study. They used 25 bottles of each diagnostic drops at la Clinique Universitaire de la Vision for a 7 month period. An analysis of the bacterial contamination was repeated ten times using both an agar plate and a nutrient broth, at time 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 weeks and 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 months.
Results :
In 7 months, 4971 drops of Alcaine®, 3219 drops of Mydriacyl® and Mydfrin® and 1896 drops of Cyclogyl® were administered to patients. Contact between bottles and biological tissues such as lids and lashes were reported 80 times for Alcaine®, 53 times for Mydriacyl®, 38 times for Mydfrin® and 52 times for Cyclogyl®. Following the 10 inoculations on the agar medium at the predetermined times, no bacterial and fungus contamination was noted. Moreover, no patient reported eye infections two weeks following drops instillation.
Conclusions :
According to the results of the current study, diagnostic eye drops can be used with a low contamination risk beyond the recommendation date of 28 days, in a controlled clinical context.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2016 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, Wash., May 1-5, 2016.