Thanks to a $100,000 grant, radiofrequency therapy (RF) is now available in the Vision Institute’s Dry Eye Clinic.
RF is an FDA approved therapy for dry eye disease that utilizes graded electromagnetic waves to generate heat in the eyelid tissue and address meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) through a combination of liquefying secretions, unclogging the glands, triggering neocollagenesis, expressing heat shock proteins, and attenuating inflammatory processes. It has been shown to be safe and effective in populations of all skin tones, making it an ideal option for patient populations with Fitzpatrick skin types V/VI who are not eligible for intense-pulsed light therapy (IPL) as it risks causing hyperpigmentation on patients with darker skin tones.
“Additionally, studies have shown that a single RF treatment combined with meibomian gland expression resulted in significant symptomatic improvement, therefore decreasing overall costs to the patients and allowing for increased accessibility for patients,” said Sabrina Mukhtar, MD, MPH, Director of the Dry Eye Clinic.
The grant will allow the Dry Eye Clinic team to study this treatment with use of imaging modalities (including meibomian gland imaging, higher order aberration quantification, and epithelial mapping) that have not been utilized in previous RF research and dry eye disease.
“With this research, we aim to reach other communities suffering from dry eye syndrome (DES) outside of those suffering with ocular rosacea,” Dr. Mukhtar said. “[This will be] one step towards breaking the cycle of inequality of dry eye treatments, all while improving the quality of life of those historically disadvantaged in our healthcare system.”