Imagine correcting vision in less than a minute – without lasers, blades or pain. A team of researchers has developed a noninvasive technique that remodels the cornea using only a smooth electric current and a temporary change of pH.
The new method can reshape the cornea through a light electric potential, known as Electromechanical Remodeling (EMR).
Was described in detail this week by investigators of the Occidental College and the University of California, in Irvine, during the conference of American Chemical Society.
In the first essays, this new technique got reversing myopia without the need for traditional surgery.
When light enters the eye, the cornea is the first lens that reaches – and this is where most of the light curvature (refractive) occurs, so as to focus the light on the retina at the back of the eye. However, if the cornea has an irregular curvature, this results in conditions such as myopia and hyperopia.
As it refers to, for those who want to eliminate correction lenses, the main option is the Lasik surgery (Laser-Assisted in situ keratomileusis), which uses a laser to reshape the cornea, removing microscopic amounts of fabric under a thin tab, allowing light to properly concentrate on the retina.
Although Lasik has a high success rate for people fit for treatment (about 95% of patients stop wearing glasses a few days after they recover from surgery) is expensive and invasiveand corneal cut changes the structural integrity of the eye.
Reversing myopia in less than a minute
Now scientists propose to work with the composition of the cornea to reshape the dome without removing any material from it.
Composed mainly by collagen, the cornea maintains its shape thanks to the disposition of loaded molecules and proteins.
Researchers found that, applying a electric current Low -level through a platinum electrode specially designed for “contact lenses” could change the pH of the tissue, increasing the acidity of the cornea tissue, which would make it flexible enough to be refurbished – as if it fit something in a mold. In this case, the mold is the platinum lens.
Then detail the new Atlas, when the current stops and the pH returns to normal, the cornea hardens again and keeps its shape of mold.
The whole process takes about a minuteIt does not require cuts or tissue removal, and so far has not revealed structural damage or cell death in tested samples. And investigators believe that EMR can replace LASIK surgery.
Effect “discovered by accident”
“The whole effect was discovered by accident. I was looking at live tissues as moldable materials and discovered this whole process of chemical modification, ”he said Brian Wongprofessor and surgeon at the University of California, in Irvine, quoted by New Atlas.
In the study, investigators then tested the process in 12 rabbit ocular globes, remodeling 10 of them to mimic the needy effect for myopia. After a short exposure to the current, each cornea met with the form incorporated into the electrode ‘lens’ and preliminary measurements revealed a successful corneal correction-without incisions, lasers or trauma in the eye.
It is important to note that EMR is still in the early stage of development and has been tested only in isolated eyes, not on living models.
