Sailing Through Post-PRK Pain

Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) is a safe and effective procedure, but it has the drawback of postoperative pain. This video shows an innovative approach to help control pain in patients following PRK surgery. We demonstrate the use of a bandage contact lens (BCL) soaked in 0.45% preservative-free ketorolac after surgery. We compare the pain in subjects with a BCL soaked in ketorolac to pain in subjects with a plain BCL, measured on the validated Wong Baker Pain scale. To validate whether there is seepage of the drug into the milieu, a similar methodology was adopted: The BCL was soaked in ketorolac, and ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography (UHP-LC) was done to evaluate the concentration of the drug and the time interval in which the BCL acted as a carrier. We saw that the pain was significantly less in patients using the BCL with ketorolac. The UHP-LC data showed that the drug was adsorbed to the BCL and there was a rapid release (within 1 hour).