Anu Vaajanen, MD, PhD, Tampere UH, Finland

Icare® tonometer is reliable, simple and fast to use. Not requiring topical anesthetic eye drops makes it easy to measure IOP with Icare® in adults and even in poorly cooperating infants. It distinctly speeds up work in ophthalmological practice and facilitates the differential diagnostics of eye problems by general practitioners in public health centres. In addition, Icare® has proved eminently useful to medical students practising their ophthalmological skills for the first time. They quickly learn to use it, and they have rated it superior to other methods available.

I use Icare® in my daily work at hospital. Its advantages are conspicuous in measuring postoperative IOP, especially after cornea transplantation surgery and in any situation in which the cornea is affected as for example in ulcerations and erosions. The device is small and easy to take to hospital ward consultations when IOP can be measured at the bedside. The ultimate success of the instrument will be guaranteed when it can be used to measure IOP in very ill, e.g. bed-ridden patients after severe trauma.

I have also successfully used a derivate of this device (TONOLAB) in my experimental ophthalmological studies (Vaajanen et al. 2008). TONOLAB makes it possible to measure IOP rapidly even in awake laboratory animals such as widely used rodents. This is of great significance in antiglaucomatous drug development as anesthesia is well known to reduce IOP.