In a poster presentation at the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Annual Meeting in May, BostonSight researchers presented findings from a retrospective observational study that evaluated the use of its Prosthetic Replacement of the Ocular Surface Ecosystem (PROSE) treatment in patients who have neurotrophic keratitis (NK). They reported statistically significant improvements in both mean disease stage and mean visual acuity following treatment. The average time required to achieve the lowest Mackie stage was 31.18 days.

According to a company press release, the use of PROSE devices across the full spectrum of Mackie stages in NK had not been studied previously, though they have demonstrated therapeutic benefits in a range of other ocular surface diseases. The retrospective study was designed to evaluate PROSE as a therapeutic intervention for NK.

The investigators analyzed data between November 2008 and September 2023 from 87 eyes of 87 patients who had NK. The study population included 8 stage 0 eyes, 57 stage 1 eyes, 17 stage 2 eyes, and 5 stage 3 eyes, as classified by the Mackie staging system. Paired t-tests and Wilcoxon rank tests were used to assess changes in visual function outcomes before and after PROSE treatment. Statistical significance was defined as a P<.05.

"The study concludes that PROSE treatment is an effective tool and should be considered when treating neurotrophic keratitis," said Daniel Brocks, MD, chief medical officer at BostonSight. "Neurotrophic keratitis is a stubborn disease, which has high risk of causing vision loss. These results illustrate the effectiveness of PROSE to save vision and induce prompt corneal tissue healing."

The poster, titled "Mackie Stage Improvement in Neurotrophic Keratopathy with use of PROSE," was prepared by Ken Whang, Estelle Crowley, and Daniel Brocks, MD. OM