The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new device called the Triggerfish, a product of Swiss medical device company Sensimed AG.
The Triggerfish could help eye doctors figure out the optimum time to test a patient's intraocular pressure (IOP), which is a necessary measure when testing for the optic nerve damage that is a common symptom of glaucoma.
About 3 million Americans are living with glaucoma, a condition that can lead to blindness. Often, by the time a patient has been diagnosed with glaucoma, significant vision loss has occurred.
The first device of its kind to be green-lighted by the FDA, the Triggerfish is a soft silicone contact lens that contains a sensor. A patient can wear the device for up to 24 hours, during which time wireless data -- including changes in the eye's volume -- are sent from the sensor to an adhesive antenna around the patient's eye.
The patient also wears a data recorder, in which all the sensor's data are stored. The information can then be sent by Bluetooth to the eye doctor's computer.
"The Triggerfish gives the clinician 24-hour continuous monitoring of changes in IOP patterns that otherwise could not be obtained,” William Maisel, acting director of the Office of Device Evaluation in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said. “This information can help determine the most critical time of day for the clinician to measure the patient’s IOP.”
Patients 22 and older can use the Triggerfish, which has been extensively studied for both safety and efficacy.
