Pupillometer Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

Pupillometer Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The pupillometer market is expected to register a CAGR of 5.1% over the forecast period (2022-2027).

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically affected the already overburdened public health systems in many countries. Additionally, the core focus of the healthcare industry shifted to pandemic crisis management. This led to challenges faced in hiring, retaining, and protecting technically trained, and encouraged health professionals. Moreover, the worldwide lockdowns led to a shortage of healthcare staff. Furthermore, the supply chain of medical devices around the world was also obstructed. In addition, the pupillometer market also faced detrimental impacts during the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a sharp decline in ophthalmology services during the pandemic. Hence, this leads to a decrease in demand for pupillometers.

Furthermore, coronavirus can enter the body through the eye's conjunctiva. Hence, ophthalmologists might be at high risk of getting infected. This is because of the proximity to patients during the examination, predisposing ophthalmologists to droplet transmission. Thus, the world health organization (WHO) commissioned precautionary measures to avoid contact with the eyes to reduce transmission. Therefore, as a cautionary measure, many ophthalmologists across the world suspended their practices temporarily. In certain countries, special guidelines were laid for ophthalmology practices, and services were suspended. For instance, the Government of India Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued guidelines on safe ophthalmology practices in the Covid-19 scenario in December 2020. These guidelines were aimed at minimizing the spread of COVID-19 among the ophthalmic healthcare staff. Hence, the Eye care facilities in containment zones remained closed. Thus, these factors led to a decline in the demand for pupillometers in the year 2020 thereby affecting the studied market during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the market is gradually recovering from the decline since the year 2021. This is because the medical device supply chain services resumed.

The major factor leading to the growth of the studied market includes the rise in awareness associated with pupillometers over manual pupillary examination coupled with technological advancements. Other factors that contribute to the growth of the market include, the surge in the prevalence of disorders requiring the use of pupillometer.

Over the years, manual pupil assessment remained a major way of obtaining pupillary information about a patient. This conventional technique involved the usage of a penlight or flashlight to manually evaluate pupil reactivity and a pupil gauge to estimate pupil size. However, manual pupillary assessment can lead to inaccuracies and inconsistencies. Furthermore, it can result in inter-examiner variability. Hence, pupillometers are preferred over manual assessment. This is because these optical devices are technically advanced. For instance, the new pupillometers have infrared cameras, an LED light source, a barcode scanner, Bluetooth-enabled data transfer, and other advanced features. In addition, features such as the barcode scanner eliminate the need for an external scanner. Hence, this avoids any transcription errors during manual entries of a patient ID. Furthermore, the novel noninvasive, handheld optical scanners available on the market can provide reliable and objective measurements of pupillary size, symmetry, and reactivity. For instance, the NPi-300 pupillometer system offered by NeurOptics, Inc. can quantify pupil reactivity on a numeric scale, and the Neurological Pupil index (NPi) allows rigorous interpretation and classification of the pupil response. The device also delivers information on whether the pupillary light reflex falls within the normal range or abnormal range. Furthermore, the device can also check if the light reflex is in, the atypical, immeasurable, or non-reactive range. Hence, these advantages make them a preferable choice among physicians.

Afferent pupillary defect (APD) is a measure of asymmetry which may occur with the optic nerve, brain tumors, retinal, or cerebral vascular disease, and amblyopia. It occurs specifically when the disease or disorder is presenting asymmetrically. Hence, the surge in prevalence of diseases such as brain tumors leads to a rise in demand for pupillometers which are used to detect APD in patients suffering from a brain tumor. For instance, according to an estimate by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), 25,050 adults are estimated to be diagnosed with primary cancerous tumors of the brain and spinal cord in the United States in the year 2022.

In addition, neurological pupil index (NPi) testing is essential in a patient with diseases such as stroke, aneurysm, and cardiac arrest among others. Thus, the rise in prevalence of cardiac arrest also leads to a surge in demand for pupillometers thereby driving the growth of the market studied. For instance, The American Heart Association released and updated a report “Heart and Stroke Statistics” in 2022. According to the report, each year in the United States there are more than 356,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA).

Therefore, owing to the aforementioned factors the studied market is anticipated to witness growth over the analysis period. However, the high cost of pupillometers and lack of specialized clinicians impacts the penetration in emerging countries. This in turn affects the growth of the pupillometer market.

Key Market TrendsVideo Pupillometer is Expected to Witness High Growth Over the Forecast Period

Video pupillometers are more advanced compared to digital pupillometers. For instance, these devices can capture the entire pupillary activity. Moreover, video pupillometers such as The EyeKinetix pupillometer offered by Konan Medical USA Inc. utilize high-definition video cameras under infrared conditions to record the bilateral pupil responses to monocular visual stimuli. Furthermore, EyeKinetix simultaneously records both direct and consensual pupillary light reflexes. In addition, the recent approval of video pupillometers is another factor that leads to a surge in their demand. For instance, NeurOptics Inc. launched NPi-300 Pupillometer in the United States in July 2021. Furthermore, NPi-300 Pupillometer has advanced features such as, it includes a LED light source, a high-precision infra-red camera, and extensive microprocessor capability. Hence, these features lead to a surge in demand in the market thereby driving the growth of the market.

Furthermore, video pupillometer such as NPi-300 is automatic and quick in comparison to digital pupillometers. Hence, automatic pupillometers remove any human errors that could occur with other testing methods. Thus, this leads to a surge in demand for video pupillometers thereby driving the growth of the market. Hence, these advantages offered by them make these devices a preferred choice among clinicians.

North America is Expected to Dominate the Pupillometer Market

North America is expected to dominate the market due to the presence of a large number of key players offering pupillometers in the region. For instance, some of the key players operating in North America include Essilor Group (Essilor Instruments), US Ophthalmic., NeurOptics Inc., Konan Medical USA Inc., and Reichert Inc.

In addition, accurate neurological and pupillary assessment are critical for the detection of neurological deterioration in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Hence, the surge in cases of traumatic brain injury in the region is another factor that drives the growth of the market. Furthermore, pupillometers are employed to check pupil response in patients with retinal diseases such as macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, intraocular tumors, and others. In addition, retinal diseases such as macular degeneration are more predisposed in the geriatric population. Moreover, according to BrightFocus Foundation, the risk of getting advanced age-related macular degeneration is 2% in people ages 50- 59. This risk is nearly 30% for those over the age of 75. For instance, according to America’s Health Rankings Senior Report published in 2021, about 16.5% of the United States population is of age 65 years or above. In addition, according to the projected estimates, the total number of people aged 65 years or above is expected to rise to 85.7 million in the United States by the year 2050. Similarly, the rise in the geriatric population in Canada is also a factor that drives the growth of the market in North America. For instance, according to Statistics Canada, an agency of the Government of Canada, in July 2021, there were 7,081,792 seniors aged 65 and older in Canada. Furthermore, as per the demographic projections, senior citizens are expected to account for over one-fifth of the population by 2025 and could reach one-quarter by 2059. Thus, the rise in the geriatric population that suffers from retinal diseases in the United States and Canada drives the rise in demand for pupillometers thereby driving the growth of the market in North America.

Therefore, owing to the aforesaid factors the growth of the studied market is anticipated in the North America Region.

Competitive Landscape

The pupillometer market is competitive due to the presence of several companies operating globally as well as regionally. The key companies operating in the market are NeurOptics Inc., Essilor Group (Essilor Instruments), Visionix, US Ophthalmic., NIDEK SA, HAAG-STREIT GROUP, Reichert Inc., Konan Medical USA Inc., Good-Lite Company, and Grobet USA (Vigor Optical).

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