- Innovation The Spanish physics that will promote smart glasses to correct cataracts without surgery
Luis García has lost practically all vision in his left eye, where he has 0.1% visual acuity, and 60% in his right. At 76 years old he began to see badly, he thought they were his glasses, so he decided to go to an optician, where they graduated his sight, and gave him new ones. His problems continued, and he went to the doctor, believing that perhaps they were cataracts. Neither. "It was an odyssey to come up with my diagnosis." Luis despaired, time passed and each time he "saw worse".
He had to wait months for his next social security appointment. The average in Spain for a consultation in Ophthalmology is 83 days. It is the second specialty with the most waiting list in our country. He decided to go to private health to try to advance the process and know what was happening to him. "Wet" macular degeneration, he was diagnosed.
This is an eye disease that causes blurred vision or a blind spot in central vision. It is usually caused by blood vessels leaking fluid or blood into the macula (part of the retina that makes vision clear). It affects the quality of life of patients, often need caregivers, and can not perform daily activities. Luis, for example, can't feel sorry to use his mobile, he needs a magnifying glass to be able to read it.
There are several treatments that can help the disease progress more slowly, and preserve existing vision. One of the handicaps of these is that patients must usually go once a month to the hospital to receive it, as is the case of Luis. "In some hospitals they do not comply with the injection schedule due to the overcrowding of patients they have," Luis complains.
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Bless you.
Varapalo to blue light filters for glasses
- Writing: CRISTINA G. LUCIO Madrid
Varapalo to blue light filters for glasses
Saturated nurse.
The mistakes that should be avoided by the three million Spaniards who wear contact lenses so as not to lose their sight
- Writing: SATURATED NURSE
The mistakes that should be avoided by the three million Spaniards who wear contact lenses so as not to lose their sight
During the pandemic this decline exploded. "It was an absolute disaster, some hospitals couldn't keep up with the schedule and I would inject you with only a few months." Luis indicates that not complying with the guidelines has its risks: "if you interrupt the treatment you can go blind."
Before this situation, Luis returned to private healthcare. "I couldn't afford to lose my right eye too." Luis spends € 1,000 per month on each injection, and the month he has to inject into both his expenses amount to € 2,000. "I won't be able to afford it for much longer. There are people who don't even do that, and they can lose their vision."
Despite the economic cost that this entails, his improvement is not assured. "I've tried every treatment on the market, but my body is becoming more resistant to them." Even so, Luis remains hopeful, especially for the new drug that has just been financed by the Ministry of Health: Vabysmo (faricimab) from the Roche laboratory.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEW DRUG
It is the first bispecific antibody for intraocular use, which targets two different signaling pathways involved in two of the main causes of vision loss: neovascular or "wet" age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and Diabetic Macular Edema (DME). This drug is designed to stabilize blood vessels, which could improve disease control, vision, and anatomical outcomes.
AMD is a chronic and progressive degenerative disease of the retina, and one of the main causes of vision deterioration in people over 50 years of age, and DME is a complication of diabetes that affects 7% of people living with this pathology.
One of the novelties of this drug is that, as shown by phase III studies in which 3,220 patients participated, almost 80% of patients treated with this drug in both pathologies were able to extend the treatment interval to every 3 or 4 months and more than 60% to every 4 months keeping their disease under control.
This therapy is available from September 1 in all hospitals in the national territory. From Roche we are working to make it easier for all patients to benefit from faricimab as soon as possible", explains Federico Plaza, Director of Corporate Affairs of Roche Farma Spain.
"I'm waiting for it like May water," says Luis. This drug may involve fewer injections into the eye over time, while improving and maintaining vision and anatomy. In this sense, Dr. Marta S. Figueroa, head of the Retina Unit of the Ramón y Cajal Hospital in Madrid, points out that "many people with AMD and DME have difficulty maintaining the schedule of intraocular injections and frequent visits to the doctor, since it means interrupting their daily tasks, their work ... or have trouble getting to the facilities where they are receiving treatment."
The spacing in time of injections not only benefits patients, but also "to release the saturation that the health system currently suffers," says Alfredo García Layana, director of the Ophthalmology Service of the University Clinic of Navarra and president of the Spanish Society of Retina and Vitreous (SERV). He adds that "needing injections frequently places a burden on the patient and involves a significant consumption of health resources. All this is a barrier to optimal control of the disease, something that leads to a situation of undertreatment."
In many cases they are difficult diseases to treat, taking into account that the way they develop and progress varies from one person to another. Early detection and correct diagnosis, as well as starting treatment as soon as possible are essential to achieve and maintain functional benefits. Its detection is very standardized through the Optical Coherence Tomography tool, but the care burden may cause continuous controls and treatments not to be carried out.
García Layana stressed the importance of close collaboration between Primary Care, general ophthalmologists and retinologists "so that their diagnosis is fast and accurate. It is necessary to establish these referral circuits that allow treatments to be expedited, without overloading the services that are already very saturated."
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