Medical devices having soft, flexible lubricious coatings
View Patent ↗Soft, flexible highly lubricious coatings for polymeric IOL insertion cartridges that allow IOLs to be easily inserted through small bore cartridges suitable for use with small (less than 3 mm) incisions are provided. These lubricious coatings allow IOLs to be inserted into the eye of a patient without the risk of lens damage or transfer of lubricants to the lens surface during implantation. Specifically, polymeric coatings comprising a matrix polymer having an equivalent weight greater than 5000 g/eq are used to form interpenetrating networks (IPN) on the surface of hydrophobic structural polymers. The IPNs thus formed entrap highly lubricious hydrophilic compounds within the IPN using multi-functional cross linkers.
1. An IOL inserter cartridge having a soft coating consisting essentially of:
a urethane matrix polymer having an equivalent weight between 10,000g/eq. and 15,000 g/eq;
a hydrophilic lubricious lubricant consisting essentially of hyaluronic acid; and
a multi-functional cross-linker consisting essentially of poly-functional aziridine.
2. The IOL inserter cartridge according to claim 1 wherein said urethane matrix polymer has an equivalent weight of approximately 11,688g/eq.
3. The IOL inserter cartridge according to claim 1 or 2 further comprising at least one performance enhancing composition selected from the group consisting of ultraviolet light absorbers, anti-foam reagents, de-foaming reagents, wetting solutions, detergents, emulsifiers, preservatives, anti-thrombogenic compounds, anti-coagulants, anti-inflammatories, cytostatic compounds, cytotoxic compounds, antibiotics, and analgesics.