New Eye Drop for Presbyopia?

Have you ever looked through a pinhole and noticed that you can see really well? Even without glasses?  The reason that pinholes work is that they shrink the amount of stray light information entering the eye, creating less distraction and minimizing the amount of distortion than can get processed and create a "blurry" image when the information reaches the brain.  The same effect is commonly used in cameras to create a clear image.  The big drawback of pinholes?  Your world is limited to a small speck of vision (albeit a clear, small speck).  Wouldn't it be great if your eye had an internal pinhole so that vision isn't as limited peripherally but you could get the same amount of crystal clarity without the need for glasses?  That is the concept behind the proposed eye drop from Presbyopia Therapies, LLC being investigated for treating blurry vision after age 40.

Small pupils create a pinhole effect, sharpening vision by limiting
distortion to a small area.  Presbyopia Therapies, LLC is working
on an eye drop that can cause this constriction temporarily to
improve vision for the day without side effects! via

Dr. Terry Kim is an ophthalmologist and leading researcher for the eye drop, and he recently spoke on Eyetube.net about his research if you are interested in watching the interview.  The drop is a new product that somehow separates miosis (pupil constriction) from accommodation (muscle action of focusing), allowing the pupil to become a pinhole without creating terrible headaches and brow pain that similar pupil constriction drops like pilocarpine are associated with.  In current research trials, the drop is being dosed daily and achieving vision effects for 8-10 hours.  Both distance and near vision is improved in his experience (just like we would expect with a normal pinhole effect).  The possibilities are theoretically endless; in addition to correcting prescriptions temporarily, these miotic drops could limit glare or halo issues after LASIK surgery or corneal injuries which are often worsened with night vision due to our larger pupil size in dim lighting.  A small pupil will keep vision away from these distorted corneal areas, preventing light from hitting these imperfections and creating glare, shadows, or halos.

We are still a few years away at least from having a drop of this nature on the market, but Dr. Kim reports that they will enter Phase 2 clinical trials next year, which means that we will be getting more concrete study results soon as to how the drop is tolerated and the amount of vision the average user is achieving.  If you are interested in learning more right now, this article was the most comprehensive I could find currently. Stay tuned because as I learn more, I will continue to update on the blog!