OREANDA-NEWS. Shvabe Holding was granted a patent for its new medical invention, a fundus therapy device.

The new device developed by experts from Zagorsk Optical and Mechanical Plant JSC, a Shvabe Holding enterprise based near Moscow, was designed for diagnostics and prevention of eye diseases, for treatment of functional eye disorders and pathologies, as well as for rehabilitation.

"The "predecessor" of the invention was an ophthalmologic slit lamp used for microscopic analysis of the media in the optical system of the eye and also for diagnostics of diseases. However, a common disadvantage of slit lamps is that they enable only visual examination of the eye. The purpose of our device is to improve the functionality of slit lamps, inter alia, by making them suitable for the treatment of different diseases, such as progressive myopia, amblyopia and other binocular vision disorders. The device we designed makes it possible to do exercises to restore the eye functions, prevent and treat visual fatigue and its consequences, and eye cornea damage," said Nikolay Rakovich, Deputy General Director for R&D and Innovative Development, Shvabe JSC.

The scientists are going to achieve this goal by adding additional elements, first of all those that give light, to the monitoring channel of a slip lamp comprising a binocular microscope and a basic light. In particular, the design of the new device uses an additional light. A complex and multi-component one, which comprises a lighting head in the form of an optical prism, a light guide and a unit producing local "blinding" light directed towards a particular area of the fundus of the eye.

In addition, the device will be fitted with removable glass and metal accessories for introducing consecutive images and shielding the yellow spot in the fundus of the eye; an aspherical lens having an optical power of 60 diopters and designed to project the image of the retina to the focal plane of the microscope; and a red light filter installed in the aspherical lens holder during speckle pattern observations (random interference pattern).

It is also important that the additional lighting unit should have different sources of light: a permanent one in the form of a halogen lamp, and a laser and pulse one in the form of a pulse LED. Actually, the main therapeutic effect for the treatment of eye diseases with this device will be produced by a particular light. For example, retina irritation can be treated with an intense light from a halogen lamp, irritation of the central fovea of retina - with polychromatic light produced by a flash lamp using the method of successive images, and exposure of the central and peripheral areas of the retina - with monochromatic light from a semiconductor laser.

The scientists of Zagorsk Optical and Mechanical Plant JSC started the development of the fundus therapy device based on acute needs of ophthalmologists for professional medical devices. Currently, the plant's specialists are developing its prototype.