Hey all, welcome back to the Real Life Pharmacology podcast. I'm your host, Eric Christensen, FarmD,

and thank you so much for listening and taking the time out of your day. Today I'm going to cover

Latanoprost, which is an eyedrop used in the management of glaucoma. The brand name of this

medication is xylatan. And it is definitely used very

frequently in clinical practice for sure. So latanoprost, the easiest way I remember the mechanism

of action because there's lots of eyedrops for glaucom, is to look at the ending of that generic name.

So the prost is indicative of a prostate glandin analog.

So what those prostate glandins do,

and particularly prostate glandin F2,

helps to lower intraocular pressure.

And it does this by basically stimulating flow or outflow of the aqueous humor within the eye.

Now the aqueous humor, that's simply put as just the fluid within the eye. Now the aqueous humor, that's simply, simply put, is just the fluid within the eye. And as that outflow becomes blocked, or there's other, you know, physiological effects that

prevent movement of that fluid, that pressure can build up,

and ultimately that pressure can lead to damage in the eye,

which is obviously a resultant factor and flows into causing glaucoma

if we're causing that damage.

So by giving that prostate gland an analog, that's going to help kick that fluid out of the eye,

help that flow, and ultimately help lower pressure.

So that's the goal of the medication there.

Now there are a couple of really important patient education

pearls that I want to discuss some mistakes that I've seen in my clinical practice without

a doubt. So first one is storage. Okay, so once the medication is removed from the fridge, it is okay at room temp for six weeks.

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