Next-gen ocular devices to optimize healing and comfort in canine patients

Sponsored by Sentrx Animal Care

Video transcript:

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Hey everyone, Dr. Adam Christman here, Chief Editor and Officer for DVM 360. Welcome to Products 360. We're so honored to be here at Charlotte Animal Referral and Emergency Center with Dr. Josh Broadwater, Veterinary Ophthalmologist. Thanks for being here.

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: Absolutely. Happy to be here.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Yeah, and we're chatting with our friends at Centers because they had some awesome products that we're going to showcase with you today. So ready to fight about it?

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: I'm 100% ready. Let's do it.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: All right. Let's do it. Well, let's talk about lubricants in general. What's the importance of having them for our patients?

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: Adam, it's huge. So, you know, when we talk about the anatomy of the eye, we used to start with the lectures of saying, "Here's the cornea and here's the sclera" and all the parts of the eye, and now I start all my lecture with, "Here's the pre-corneal tear film" because it is so important to the eye. The pre-corneal tear film is what lubricates the surface of the eye. It's what keeps the clarity of the corneal surface. It's what washes away bacteria and debris from the eye, keeping us from getting infections and irritations and ulcers. So extremely important.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Yeah. And the function of the tear film in general, I know for nutrition purposes, has a lot of functions, correct.

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, our cornea needs that tear film to provide lubrication, nutrition, all those things to keep our cornea healthy, keep our cornea clear so we can see so well, and our patients can be comfortable and have great vision.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Excellent. Okay, so let's get into some of these products. Shall we? Okay, Josh, looks like the first one up we have is the Eye Lube pro. So tell us a little bit about this.

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: So I see so many cases that come into the clinic for eye problems, ulcers, and I'm always having ulcer owners saying, "What can I do to prevent things like this from happening in the future?" And when you have lubrication and you can provide more lubrication to the surface of the eye, you can only help these patients to hydrate the eye, to try to protect the eye from future ulcers. There's so many things that this can be used for because of keeping from infections, keeping from irritations. You have dogs, correct?

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Yes, you know it.

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: Do you have any that love to hang their head out the window while you're driving?

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: I know what I try to bring them in, but... but yes, some of them do.

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: So we in the field call that a practice builder, okay? Because that's what causes ulcers and irritations in foreign bodies to the eye. So I have owners that say when to use these products and I'm telling them anytime that they are basically taking the dog for a grooming, they're going to give them a bath, they're going to take them on a car ride. And anything like that, put this in the eye, try to protect the health of their eye from getting any irritation or ulcers.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Okay. And so this Eye Lubr Pro, I understand, has 20% more hyaluronic acid in that. What's the significance of that?

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: Hyaluronic acid is huge. I mean, it's been all the rave for years for different things. You hear dermatologists talk about it for skin things and for the eye, it's enormous. It helps with hydration. It helps with wound healing properties. So, and having something that can maintain on the surface of the eye longer is just gonna help this product to be able to be functional longer. So, in a clinic setting like this, every patient that's going under anesthesia for surgery or some sort of procedure, they are going to get dry. It naturally happens that they're not going to blink and tear production drops down with the eye as well. And so they are gonna get dry, they are gonna be predisposed to getting an ulcer. And so, something like this in the clinic is crucial because we're putting in the eyes frequently throughout anesthetic procedures to try to keep them from getting an ulcer. So it's products like this that are great.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: And I understand every 30 minutes are supposed to be applying as well. They're under general anesthesia. They're literally sleeping, right?

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: That would be ideal. Yeah. You know, they make different products. Some other things that used to be used frequently were products with petroleum jellies and ointments, and they would really obscure vision when these patients were waking up and they just weren't as effective plus nobody wants to go home with their dog with, you know, thick petroleum ointments all over their eyes as well. So with something like this, we apply frequently like let's say every 30 minutes under anesthesia. Not only is it going to keep the eye lubricated, but it's going to allow the revision to be just fine when they wake up. It doesn't really impair vision at all, which is great. Nice. And I'd like and we'll show this in a little bit that it also has a nice precision application tip. Yeah. So it's really good. So you can just be very conservative a little bit goes a long way with something like this one drop is all you need.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: I like that he said that too at home because this is something that he wants some of his clients to give to their pets and the applicator tip and pieces is beneficial…

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: …all the time. I would prefer almost every one of my patients that comes in the doors, you know, we have Shih Tzus and pugs that we see more than just about anybody else and And if I could just give them a stack of this every time that they come in to the door to avoid future corneal ulcers or dryness or irritation, it would probably save a lot of veterinary visits to someone like me.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Yes, consistent administration of lubrication for these eyes and the Eye Lube Pro certainly got you covered on that. Okay, so next up, we're gonna chat a little bit about dry eye and here we have... Sentrx is Ocunovis ProCare BioHAnce

Gel Eye Drops with amino acids for dogs and cats. What are your thoughts on this?

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: So I see so many dry eye patients in the clinic, it's probably the most common thing that causes other eye issues and in dogs and cats, certainly corneal ulcers and corneal infections as well. So all of these guys usually need to be started on tear stimulants or something like cyclosporine, Tacrolimus, but those can take weeks and weeks before they actually increase tear production in the eye. So, using a lubricant on the eye, especially something that has hyaluronic acid and especially something with cross-linked hyaluronic acid that's going to last much, much longer on the surface of the cornea, is going to keep these guys much more well-lubricated until those tear stimulants can really get really long into full effect to lubricate the eye even better.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Excellent. And is there clinical evidence for cross-linked hyaluronic acid?

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: Yeah, so one study showed that cross-linked hyaluronic acid actually led to an improvement in KCS or dry eye symptoms in dogs in a clinical setting within two weeks. And that's despite only being used twice daily.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Okay, awesome. And I guess there's other evidence that's found in resident time studies too.

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: Yeah, so it demonstrates that the duration compared to traditional eye lubricants, including human products, that it just lasts much longer, which creates much better owner compliance.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Okay, and are there any other benefits to it?

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: So it contains a lot of amino acids, which means that we're providing that nutritional support to the pre-corneal tear film that we need as well. And it's much easier to administer than many other lubricants that are out there. And it's also preservative and antibiotic-free as well.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: And Sentrx also has the Oculenis BioHAnce Ocular Repair Gel. So tell us about this one.

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: Yeah. So this is great. So this product contains a 0.75% cross-linked hyaluronic acid, which is the highest out there that you're going to find. That's going to allow much better protection, much better coverage on the cornea, much better lubrication, much better ability to help the wounds heal that we're using it for essentially.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Okay, great. And so what are some other uses for it?

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: So a product like this is we typically think about it with being used with corneal ulcers, wounds, traumatic wounds to the cornea after a surgical procedure to the eye. There's a lot of other uses as well. One of the more common things I see it for are chemical burns to the eye. So shampoo, the owner washes their dog and unfortunately some shampoo gets inside the eye and under the cornea. And those are very painful and those are tough to heal and so a product like this with such a high concentration of the cross-linked hyaluronic acid going to be able to not only provide a lot of comfort but help a woman like that heal much quicker as well. A product like this with ulcers that are secondary to dry eye as well is fantastic. Again, just providing that better lubricant lubrication and coverage and protection to the surface of the eye because those guys are dry. They don't have much tear production, so we can lubricate them even better. Ulcer secondary to hairs are just sticky or rubbing on the surface of the eye. This is going to help again lubricate and prevent some of that irritation from those hairs.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: There's so many benefits. Are there even additional benefits of it?

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: Yeah, one of the biggest things is a product like this with that 0.75% cross-linked hyaluronic acid. It's going to last much, much longer, two to five times longer than most of the other products are out there. So what does that mean? So you have dogs again, right?

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Yes. Yes.

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: So if one of those, if I said, can you go home and put this drop in eight times a day? I imagine you probably have one that's going to look at you and say, no way that's happening. Now imagine there's a painful ulcer on the surface of the eye that now there's no way to get rid of it. want to let you put a product like that, right? Any product is in the eye. So that's the advantage of something like this because you can use it way less frequently because it lasts so much longer with such good coverage and protection on the eye. So you're able to use it maybe two times a day, somewhere around there, and a painful dog that doesn't want you to pry their eyelids open and try to put this in. And owners are going to be way more compliant with something like that versus a lot of the traditional lubricants that we think about.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Yeah, great. And is there any clinical evidence?

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: There is. So with that 0.75% hyaluronic acid, that cross-linked hyaluronic acid, it provides 50% greater healing rates in mass clinical studies in animals with a damaged cornea. And unlike serum, it's also shown not to bind to any antibiotics and it doesn't interfere with the efficacy of the antibiotic as well.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Excellent. Excellent.

Joshua Broadwater, DVM, DACVO: And coming soon, Oculenis XL, the 0.75% corneal repair gel, which is in a 10-mL vial. So it's about 3.3 times bigger than the traditional vial, but for about 1.7 times the cost of it. This is going to be great for those cases that are going to mean need much more frequent administration of the drops. It's also great for large animal cases. So courses that get ulcers, which happens all the time. it's gotta be great for something like that as well.