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Dr Putrino’s Eyegenie
Almost everyone at some point during their clinical experience will encounter, or have been in a situation where they think to themselves, “Wouldn’t it be nice if someone had invented… right now?. Well, one such device that falls neatly into this category is the recently introduced Eyegenie. 
The Eyegenie is a simple plastic eyelid retractor that allows the practitioner to accurately and comfortably grip the external eyelid, without having to make any direct skin-to-skin contact with the patient – genius!
Handy, when it comes to contagious conditions, ptosis, uncontrollable excessive blinking, diagnostic examinations or simply as a more hygienic method of eyelid manipulation. It is very light, simple to use, with disposable tips for reduced cross contamination, relatively affordable and easy to adopt into the routine eye examination.
But are we being too cautious? Is it really needed for clinicians and do the benefits matter? What about the patient’s viewpoint, another intrusive device or relief in having a more hygienic experience?
Dr Charles Putrino has developed the Eyegenie for use by eyecare practioners. Further detail may be found at http://www.eyegenie.com/
The Eyegenie eyelid retractor is distributed in the UK by Hilco.
A full transcript of Andrew’s article on the Eyegenie, published in the Optician on March 16th, may be found here:
Eyegenie Article, Optician, March 16 2007
May 1st, 2008 ~ 
charles.putrino // May 13, 2007 at 3:45 am
As the inventor and a current practicing optometrist I would like to share some of my clinical experiences with eyegenie.
Contact lens patients are one of the patient categories that I find the eyegenie most useful.
Recently I had a Patient that required an astigmatic contact lens correction. The lens rotation was apparently unpredictable by slit lamp examination. Initially I observed the lens rotation by pulling the lower lid down to observe the lens markings. It appeared to rotate clockwise by 10 degrees. I ordered the lens compensating for the 10 degree rotation. When I evaluated the lens it appeared to rotate as was expected, however the visual acuity was poor. My first thought was that the lens was not made to specifications.
On closer evaluation using the eyegenie with the slit lamp, I was able to determine that the actual lens rotation and the lens rotation was only 2 degrees. I reordered the lens without the lens rotation compensation and the patient’s visual acuity was very good.
The eyegenie enabled me to more precisely evaluate the natural tendency of the contact lens rotation.
Please share your experiences regarding the eyegenie and contact lenses.
charles.putrino // May 20, 2007 at 3:19 am
Applanation tonometry on many patients can be frustrating and time consuming. I continue to enjoy the simplicity and efficient use of my chair time when performing this procedure on my patients.
There are cases when the eyelid anatomy is challenging and requires modifications of technique. For example, consider the patient with extreme bleparochalasis. I modify the tip configuration to mono-tip or reversed bi-tip and merely retract the problematic upper lid and obtain the pressure.
Please reference the web site (www.eyegenie.com) for detailed instruction on the various eyelid anatomies and the suggested modifications in configurations and technique.
Please share your tonometry experiences and tell me how the eyegenie has been useful.
Leonard Sulisz // Jul 18, 2008 at 9:28 am
Dr. Putrino, are you still in practice? I had two exams done by you in the past 5 years at WalMart’s Eye Center at US 41 & Jacaranda. Please resopond. I liked your diagnostic workup. Please respond. Sincerely, L. Sulisz
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