Numerical study on the effects of segmental aqueous humour outflow on ocular drug delivery

Abstract

The present study develops a 3D model of the human eye to investigate the effects of segmental aqueous humour outflow on ocular drug delivery. Segmental outflow is modelled by prescribing the permeability of the trabecular meshwork (TM) as a spatially-varying heterogeneous function that follows a rectangular profile. The choice of the rectangular profile is decided based on a recent experimental study on segmental outflow. Results from the numerical simulations showed that segmental outflow causes the majority of the drugs to egress through the active part of the TM. In the context of glaucoma treatment, this can be detrimental to the treatment efficacy, since it is the non-active region is the primary target site of the drugs.