Drop Schedule Update: Change in Topical Steroid for LASIK and PRK

Post date: Oct 07, 2020 2:1:33 AM

Dr. Holzman surveyed the clinical team for our thoughts on the drop schedule. Did we want any changes and why? Or was is OK to keep things the same.

Here's my personal take on why I thought a change to branded steroids for LASIK and PRK patients might be a good idea.

For so long, I thought it was OK to use generic steroids for our LASIK and PRK patients becuase Dr. Holzman's surgical eyes were always so "quiet". If there's not that much inflammation going on, then it must be OK to use a blah generic steroid, right?

However, I've come to find that inflammation control after surgery is about two things: quashing gross inflammation like a DLK as well as calming down micro-inflammation so that corneal nerves can rehab themselves more quickly. While we might not see overt differences in our patients, we should be doing everything possible to avoid the complications of persistent post-surgical pain which tends to be mentioned more and more in the literature as something authentic to consider for patient care.

Since there's really no telling what we get with generic steroids, I thought perhaps a move back to branded steroids might be prudent, especially because there are a lot of good coupons to help patients control medication costs.

Dr. Holzman, of course, made the final decision on how to change our patient's medications. For LASIK, we'll be using Inveltys. For PRK, we'll be using Flarex. You can find updated exam forms and drop schedules here.