Thursday, October 28, 2010

Abstract: SmartPlugs, DumbPlugs and DarnedPlugs

Almost as often as I see a new study on this brand of plugs, I hear of YET ANOTHER patient who is probably facing reconstructive eyelid surgery after having a so-called SmartPlug inexplicably go AWOL in her eyelid.

Stay away from this product - that's all I can say.

A high success rate means nothing when the consequences of being one of the minority failures is so terribly serious.

Some form of simple failure is acceptable for most medical treatments. Catastrophic failure is ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE for any dry eye treatment.

Nan Fang Yi Ke Da Xue Xue Bao. 2010 Oct 20;30(10):2370-2372.
[Application of Smart Plug lacrimal plug in the treatmengt of dry eye.]
[Article in Chinese]
Guo L, Wu XY, Yuan F, Li B.
Department of Ophthalmology, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan 250012, China.


OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of Smart Plug lacrimal plug in the treatment of dry eye.

METHODS: Twenty-nine patients with dry eyes (58 eyes) were treated with Smart Plug lacrimal plug. All the patients were follow up for 6-10 months (average 7.8 months). Schirmer I test (SIT), tear break-up time (TBUT) and corneal fluorescein staining were used for evaluation of the clinical efficacy.

RESULTS: The SIT was 3.35∓2.60 mm and 6.35∓4.15 mm, TBUT was 3.14∓1.22 s and 5.46∓1.26 s, and corneal fluorescein staining was 2.15∓0.09 and 0.05∓0.01 before and after the treatment, respectively (P<0.05). The subjective symptoms were improved in most of the patients.

CONCLUSION: Smart Plug lacrimal plug is effective in the treatment of dry eye due to aqueous tear deficiency, and can be one of the choice of dry eye treatment

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