Intraocular Aerosol Treatment for Inhibition of Proliferative Vitreoretinopathy

Project Summary Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) is a major complication of retinal detachments and is responsible for most of the failures in retinal reattachment surgeries. About 10% of retinal detachment patients suffer from PVR. These patients often have poor visual outcome despite multiple surgeries. Our previous work on inhibition of PVR has focused on pharmacological intervention concurrent with the retinal reattachment surgery. We have developed a porcine PVR model that provides a PVR-affectedmodel eye with anatomical features comparable to human eye. Further, we ensure that the model is based on retinal injury and dispersion of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells and not exogenous cells or proteolytic intervention as used in prior research.Our model is closest in pathophysiology to the human disease. For drug delivery, we have developed a novel intraocular aerosol generator (IAG), which generates a fine mist of drug solution at the tip of 25 gauge needle. IAG allows dispersing microgram qu