UNAIR NEWS – Based on data from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2002, glaucoma is the second most common cause of blindness with a prevalence of about 4.4 million, or about 12.3% of the world’s blindness. Glaucoma is an eye disease characterized by increasing pathological intraocular pressure.
A normal intraocular pressure of about 15 mmhg, the glaucoma can rapidly increase to 60 to 70mmhg. Such high pressure can cause blindness in a few days or a few hours.
Based on data from the American Academy of Ophthalmology in 2010, conventional therapy for glaucoma requires one or more topical eye drops designed to reduce intraocular pressure (IOP) by at least 25%.
So far, glaucoma can be treated with some treatments. Among these treatments are the use of oral medications, eye drops, and laser treatment or surgical procedures. Glaucoma treatment can now be done by implementing drug delivery system in the eye.
The weakness of the implementation of drug delivery system and treatment that already exist today is because it is done invasively. Treatment can cause infection, so a second surgery should be performed. This also requires a lot of money.
Based on that backgrounds, five students of Universitas Airlangga provide solutions to treat glaucoma. The solution is utilizing the natural ingredients of chitosan made of crab or shrimp shells.
Chitosan gliserophosphate and alginate have antibacterial ability which can prevent infection. Alginate from brown algae and packed in the form of hydrogel is added.
The Research Student Creativity Program Team (PKM-P) which got funding from Kemenristek Dikti is led by Nadia Rifqi Cahyani and the members are Annisa Wahyu Alifiany, M. Bagus Lazuardi, Marsya Nilam Kirana, and Iffa Aulia Fiqrianti. Dr. Prihartini Widiyanti, drg., M.kes, S.Bio, CCD was the supervising lecturer .
This UNAIR student product is packaged in the form of hydrogel with drug delivery system. This product is packed in granular form which, when dropped into the eye, granules will spread to the retina. Thus, it can reduce fluid which increase intraocular pressure in the eye with glaucoma.
This step is expected to extend the period of drug delivery system in the eye so that patients do not need to drop medication repeatedly.
“The eye is a vital organ essential for life. We offered a solution and it is expected to improve the quality of life and give hope to people with glaucoma and great potential for blindness, “said Nadia as the team leader.
This innovation has been through the Fourier Transform Infra Red (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), swelling, and drug delivery so it is expected to answer the existing problems. (*)
Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh
