LUMIO: Eye Care Beyond The Chair

Adapting the Examination: Managing Dry Eye and In‑Growing Lashes at Home

The Lumio is a very versatile device, which is really useful in domiciliary settings. A typical case was where we visited Mrs B in her own home, as she was unable to visit a high street practice, due to her arthritis. Her arthritis prevented her from holding her head up comfortably and made examining her eye difficult.

At a glance:

Challenge:	The patient’s severe arthritis prevented clinic attendance and made chin rest anterior eye examination difficult due to restricted head and neck movement.
Environment:	Domiciliary setting- the assessment was carried out in the patient’s home, requiring a portable and flexible approach
Results:	A full anterior eye examination, treatment, and confident diagnosis of dry eye disease were achieved comfortably using Lumio in a challenging domiciliary setting.

Mrs B was complaining of sore, irritable eyes, which required a thorough external eye examination. Due to the difficulties of Mrs B restricted movement and head posture, the flexibility and versatility of the Lumio was invaluable. Firstly we were able to assess the lids, lid margin, cornea, limbus, sclera and conjunctiva with the white light setting. Mrs B found the brightness a little overwhelming, but we were able to dim the brightness and allow for a more comfortable and optimal assessment. This examination revealed several ingrowing lashes in the left lower lid. We were able epilate these using the Lumio in one hand and tweezers in the other. The 7x magnification gave us a great view, but still allowing ample space to fit the tweezers between the Lumio and the lid. This made the epilation much easier and more comfortable for Mrs B. Assessment of the Meibomian glands revealed significant MGD, in both eyes. The rest of the examination under white light was unremarkable, in both eyes.

Once this was completed we inserted fluorescein into her eyes and then used the Lumio on the blue light setting and the special yellow filter, which really enhanced the fluorescein staining, making it much easier to assess. The examination showed some corneal staining, in the left eye, caused by the lashes rubbing on the cornea. There was also diffuse punctate staining across both corneas, suggesting moderate dry eye.

“I have just returned from Kenya. They have the Lumio devices and we worked with them. Very nice view and very portable which will help them with the bush clinics they do for screenings.

David Markoff

MD, FACS, Mountain Eye Associates, N.C. USA

Clear Results

We were able to advise Mrs B, with confidence, that she was suffering from dry eyes and recommended dry eye drops. These drops will undoubtably help both maintain consistent vision for Mrs B but also make her eyes feel a lot more comfortable.

Due to the dexterity of the Lumio Mrs B was always comfortable and we were able to complete a thorough assessment of the anterior eye and deliver confident results, in a challenging setting.