Icare TA01i Rebound Tonometer

A triumph for tonometry that avoids the numbing and air-puff, yet lacks efficiency in office settings.

Overview

Henry Ford wrote a book in which he claimed that the key to success for businesses was to focus solely on the product and nothing more. Something that is easily said from someone whom replaced the horse and buggy with internal combustion vehicles offering extraordinary convenience to the West. This translates well into an analogy for Icare- a Finnish company that prior to their tonometric invention had largely been an unknown. Realizing that no practical tonometry method existed, Rebound Tonometry came without the need for drops or air-puff or fear for that matter. IOPs could now be obtained (accurately) with five light-touches of the cornea; practically unnoticeable and completely painless. For the most part, we agree with those claims and find them mostly to be true– the ICare is a amazing feat of technology that bypasses the air-puff and need for numbing drops altogether. But of course, there is a price that must be paid. We find that the Icare requires some user skill/experience to use, and for uncooperative patients, it may take a few tries to get reliable readings (in between the blinks and lashes). The device can also be intimidating despite not blasting air to the cornea, it does still make contact with the cornea with the use of a tiny probe, and depending on the tear film, can feel sticky or slightly aggressive. Above all though, the Icare is not as efficient as a Non-contact tonometer would be. Since it’s a handheld device, IOPs can be taken anywhere however that doesn’t mean it will mesh well with your current pre-test environment (given desktop instruments). In the absence of an experienced operator, expects IOPs to take longer.