Microbiological Safety of Using Eye Drops After One Month: Contamination is A Rule or Mere Regulation ?

Objective: The study was aimed to assess microbial contamination of the eye drop solution after using for one month. Design: A prospective study of the sterility of sixty multi-drop residual eye drops was done. Eye drops were collected from the rural based patients, after at least one month of use. All the eye drop bottles were de-labeled and coded and sent for microbiological evaluation. Only eye drop solution was examined for contamination. Results: None of the eye drop had any qualitative or quantitative evidence of growth after 14 days of incubation on various culture media. Conclusion: The eye drops can be used without fear of microbiological contamination for at least six weeks after opening the vial irrespective of its contents and presence of preservatives .