Says Dr. Lisa Brothers Arbisser

Going Beyond Antibiotics
TM
Catheter Blockage Case Study
NovaBay’s Avenova™ “Has the Capacity to Change Everything,”
Says Dr. Lisa Brothers Arbisser
Dr. Lisa Brothers Arbisser is the co-founder of Eye Surgeons Associates, now a 22-doctor practice in the
Quad Cities in Iowa and Illinois. She is also an adjunct associate professor at the University of Utah Moran Eye
Center and a former president of the American College of Eye Surgeons. In this interview, she describes how
new products from NovaBay Pharmaceuticals are solving long-standing problems in eye care.
Q: In cataract surgery, doctors routinely use
preventative antibiotics before every operation to prevent infections, right? Doesn’t that
raise concerns about the development of
antibiotic resistance?
A: The consequences of infection are so dire
that we use the biggest hammer that we can for
prophylaxis. But that type of antibiotic use is
anathema to everyone else in medicine because
of the growing problem of antibiotic resistance.
Q: Can you tell me, please, why you became
an ophthalmologist?
A: I decided to be an ophthalmologist when I
was 11 years old. My grandfather had a giant
retinal tear in one eye and lost all vision in that
eye. Then his other eye was affected. My mother
found an ophthalmologist who had invented a
then new operation, the scleral buckle. So my
grandfather went up to Boston for the procedure—and the sight in his second eye was saved.
That was momentous. My grandfather said he
didn’t want to live if he went blind. The impact
that doctor had on our lives was so huge that I
wanted to do the same for others.
Q: You specialized in cataract surgery?
A: Yes, I was doing up to 60 cases a week.
Spring 2015
A: I found it to be far better at keeping the lids
clean than other treatments. What’s so great
about this is that the solution demonstrates in
vitro superior antimicrobial kill time, an antiinflammatory effect by neutralizing toxins, and it
is not cytotoxic or irritating to human tissue—it
doesn’t sting and burn.
Every time there’s a new antibiotic, you have to
be careful how you use it. We are losing the war
with bacteria because of resistance.
Q: Tens of millions of Americans suffer from
blepharitis, an often-painful condition where
Staphylcocci or other bacteria grow on eyelids,
causing swelling, redness, inflammation,
irritation and a crusty build-up. But traditionally doctors haven’t had a really good way of
treating this condition?
Q: So NovaBay’s Avenova eyelid cleanser is a
possible solution to this problem because it is
the only eye care product to contain a potent
substance with antimicrobial properties in
solution, hypochlorous acid (HOCl), which
doesn’t lead to the development of resistant
bacteria? [NovaBay calls its formulation of
stable, pure HOCl, Neutrox™]
A: Just about every older patient has blepharitis, and many children as well. But the hygiene
we’ve been telling people to do to treat it is
difficult, irritating, and sometimes toxic. We also
use antibiotics to treat blepharitis, which really is
a chronic low-grade infection, using low doses
of antibiotics for a month at a time. But that is
exactly what is known to cause resistance.
A: For years we have used antibiotics very
indiscriminately, creating multi-drug-resistant
bacteria. This new product does have the capacity to bring us into an entirely new era of adopting the use of non-antibiotic antimicrobials and
conserving our most valuable antibiotics when
they are absolutely needed. In in vitro studies,
Neutrox (HOCl) in solution has the ability to
kill bacteria, viruses, or fungi within 60 seconds
and without any toxicity. This is phenomenal.
Neutrox has demonstrated in vitro anti-toxin
activity as well, also in solution.
Q: Does Avenova offer a better approach,
since it has shown in lab studies that it is antimicrobial in solution and non-toxic?
Q: You have been using Avenova before and after cataract surgery. How is it working?
A: I’m very enthusiastic.
A: It’s a game-changer. Ultimately in other
disease states as well. And using it for blepharitis
or meibomian gland dysfunction [a cause of dry
eye] is only the tip of the iceberg of what it is
capable of.
Q: You sound convinced that NovaBay is making breakthroughs in eye care?