CNET reports that "researchers at the University of Florida are working to
design contact lenses already helpful in protecting the eyes
post-surgery that can extend the release time of anesthesia to help with this post-surgery pain. The trick, chemist Anuj Chauhan and colleagues report in the journal Langmuir, is vitamin E. By adding 'highly hydrophobic' vitamin E aggregates to silicone
hydrogel lenses for distribution of three commonly used anesthetics
post-surgery, they found that the aggregates acted as barriers; by not
interacting so readily with water on the surface of the eye, this
barrier was able to extend the release time of the anesthetics from just
a few hours to multiple days." Read more.
