Transscleral drug delivery for posterior segment disease

Exciting new treatments are being developed for retinal degenerations and posterior segment eye disease. The successful treatment of these visually devastating diseases will likely require delivering effective doses of pharmacologic agents to the posterior segment, possibly in conjunction with surgical or genetic interventions. Currently, the treatment of diseases affecting the posterior segment is limited by the difficulty in delivering effective doses of drugs to target tissues in the posterior vitreous, retina or choroid. This review summarizes recent laboratory and clinical studies that indicate that transscleral delivery of therapeutic solutes might be an effective means of achieving therapeutic concentrations of these agents in the posterior eye. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B V All rights reserved.