Pharmacology
Preservatives
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Get access- Needed to maintain sterility of agents
- Most preservatives are toxic to the precorneal tear film and epithelium
- Benzalkonium chloride: surfactant preservative
- Bactericidal by rupturing bacterial cell walls
- Most effective at pH 8
- Inactivated by salts
- Toxic to the cornea
- Thiomersal
- Chlorbutol
- Organomercuric compounds: deposits can develop in cornea
- Hypersensitivity is the most common complication of preservative in 10% of patients