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Harley_Quinn_Lawton t1_jcs613c wrote

Reply to comment by kingdazy in Bacteria in recalled eye drops linked to cases of vision loss, surgical removal of eyeballs by iamthyfucker

Eye drops are safe. It was one particular brand that dropped the ball.

If you don’t use artificial tears, especially as you get older and your eyes dry out, you run a risk of developing some nasty issues that can also lead towards enucleation.

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TheLurkingMenace t1_jcsrjh6 wrote

Well, if one brand can fuck up like this, what's to keep others from doing it too? You'd think keeping dangerous bacteria out of eyedrops would be a simple matter, but apparently not.

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monospaceman t1_jcteprc wrote

The article is pretty clear about it. These problems were centred around preservative-free drops, and therefore bacteria was able to breed.

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Blenderx06 t1_jcti3c4 wrote

Unfortunately if you have chronic dry eye issues, doctors prescribe the use of preservative free drops only, as the preservatives can make things worse.

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daveboy2000 t1_jcxhbni wrote

Well hopefully there'll be some preservatives that don't by the time we need them.

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Blenderx06 t1_jcxilzz wrote

Covid left me with neuropathic dry eye since last year.

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ElleHopper t1_jcu7xzw wrote

Preservatives can irritate the eye quite a bit if they need to be used daily or multiple times a day. Most people with moderate to severe dry eye are advised to use preservative free drops to prevent that.

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dk00111 t1_jctmfwt wrote

Even though these eye drops were marketed as preservative free, if you look at the ingredient list, it has a preservative in it.

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nimassane t1_jdxzg97 wrote

Well this is great for my anxiety. I have chronic dry eyes and constantly rely on Refresh preservative free eye drops every 2 hours.

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Darryl_Lict t1_jcszdpb wrote

India. Don't buy eyedrops from India. Unfortunately these were distributed in the US, and I personally would never check the country of manufacture for most medicine I buy.

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Piotr-Rasputin t1_jct4yb5 wrote

Tons of drugs are manufactured in India. Source: Work in a hospital pharmacy

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Aazadan t1_jcuyv9v wrote

India's laws, especially towards generic medications, make it pretty easy to develop medications there.

For the most part, we don't hear about too many product failures from them.

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reconrose t1_jcsi0nu wrote

Yeah it's sad how reactionary people are. You wouldn't be able to use any products if you want use that which never had a single brand's product recalled.

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tastysnake667 t1_jcsj2y7 wrote

This is why I don’t drink water, eat food, or breathe air!!

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RiverGyoll t1_jcu6oca wrote

Is this a cultural thing or related to a climate or anything? Can anyone outside North America speak to how widespread the use of “artificial tears” is in their nation? I’ve never even heard the term. I’ve heard of eye drops obviously.

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ElleHopper t1_jcux6mi wrote

It can be related to climate, genetics, or other diseases that a person has. Women also have a higher likelihood of developing dry eye due to hormonal effect on the glands' production. Lower humidity environments make the tear film evaporate more quickly, so even someone who hasn't ever felt dry eye may not be able to move to a dry climate without feeling it.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19115918/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7401914/

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HeyOP t1_jcvaimw wrote

Which studies have correlated lack of use of eye drops among an otherwise healthy population and an increase of eye disease? Is "if you don't use artificial tears" meant to be qualified by anything, like age or preexisting condition? Marijuana users and people riding motorcycles with a skull cap helmet and no goggles?

Edit: As an aside, it's two brands and one manufacturer.

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Harley_Quinn_Lawton t1_jcvmmhz wrote

Artificial tears helps prevent dry eye. Dry eye can lead to corneal abrasions and corneal ulcers.

I’m not saying it’s something people should do all the time - but the risk of never using drops again far outweighs the benefits.

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HeyOP t1_jcvwydy wrote

> Artificial tears helps prevent dry eye. Dry eye can lead to corneal abrasions and corneal ulcers.

Okay great, wasn't really the question.

> I’m not saying it’s something people should do all the time

Nor have I accused you of saying as much, nor interpreted your statements to mean as much. I appreciate you trying to address what you believe is at issue, though. What you have said was:

> If you don’t use artificial tears [...] you run a risk of developing some nasty issues that can also lead towards enucleation.

Which is a statement of correlation. Can you support it other than simply saying "moistening your eye helps prevent your eyes from being dry and the issues that that can lead to?" Total dry eye sufferers comprise about 13% of the most at-risk age group of 50+ in the US, and of course that total of sufferers includes those not within that age group. Compared to total population it's about *5%. The apparent common sense simplicity of your above first two sentences notwithstanding, I don't believe my skepticism of that stated correlative relationship is undue.

And for my part, to also address possible misinterpretation, I'm not saying people shouldn't use them. What I'm asking is that statements of correlation that imply a product is indespensible to everyone either be supported or couched in appropriate qualifiers required for the statement to be supported.

Edit: The asterisk, 4% became 5% to round up appropriately. I thought I'd already hit the 5 but apparently had not. Apologies.

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