Punctal plug: a medical device to treat dry eye syndrome and for sustained drug delivery to the eye

Yellepeddi VK 1 , Sheshala R 2 , McMillan H 3 , Gujral C 3 , Jones D 3 , Raghu Raj Singh T 4

Affiliations 

  • 1 College of Pharmacy, Roseman University of Health Sciences, South Jordan, UT, USA; Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
  • 2 Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, School of Pharmacy, International Medical University, Bukit Jalil, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 3 School of Pharmacy, Queen's University Belfast, Medical Biology Centre, 97 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7BL, UK
  • 4 School of Pharmacy, Queen's University Belfast, Medical Biology Centre, 97 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7BL, UK. Electronic address: r.thakur@qub.ac.uk
Drug Discov Today, 2015 Jul;20(7):884-9.
PMID: 25668579 DOI: 10.1016/j.drudis.2015.01.013

Abstract

Punctal plugs (PPs) are miniature medical implants that were initially developed for the treatment of dry eyes. Since their introduction in 1975, many PPs made from different materials and designs have been developed. PPs, albeit generally successful, suffer from drawbacks such as epiphora and suppurative canaliculitis. To overcome these issues intelligent designs of PPs were proposed (e.g. SmartPLUG™ and Form Fit™). PPs are also gaining interest among pharmaceutical scientists for sustaining drug delivery to the eye. This review aims to provide an overview of PPs for dry eye treatment and drug delivery to treat a range of ocular diseases. It also discusses current challenges in using PPs for ocular diseases.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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