CHANGE IN CORNEAL SENSITIVITY AFTER TOPIC AL APPLICATION OF DORZOLAMIDE

Background: The new antiglaucoma drug, dorzolamide, mainly evokes loca l side effects like eye burning, pruritus, blurred sight and a foreign -body sensation. A clinical study was conducted to determine it dorzol amide has any influence on corneal sensitivity. Subjects and methods: We examined three different groups of substances. We used sodium chlor ide solution 0.9% and the local anesthetic oxybuprocaine 0.4% as contr ol groups, each in two subgroups aged 23-40 years or 60-86 years. Corn eal sensitivity was measured in the corneal center with Draeger's elec tronic optic aesthesiometer. We took the measurements directly before and 1, 5, 10, 15 and 20 min after applying one eye drop. Results: The control groups with sodium chloride solution showed no significant (P> 0.05) corneal hyposensitivity. The local anesthetic caused corneal ase nsitivity (P<0.05) until the 10-min measurement. Twenty minutes after giving the anesthetic, with 12.10(-5) N corneal sensitivity nearly rea ched the starting value. At th is ti me corneal sensitivity in the old er subgroup was still decreased with 627.10(-5) N. In the younger subg roup dorzolamide only caused slight, but significant (P<0.05), hyposen sitivity of the cornea 1 and 5 min after application of the eye drop. Conclusion: Although dorzolamide decreases corneal sensitivity only a little, people with glaucoma using contact lenses should not insert th em until at least 15 min after applying the dorzolamide.