article_snippet: The ointment’s active ingredient
article_snippet: – a compound known as a prostaglandin – was initially developed as a treatment for glaucoma, or high pressure in the eyeball, given as eye drops.
article_snippet: However, while testing the drug, doctors noticed that fat around doctors eyes began to disappear within weeks – called prostaglandin-associated periorbitopathy, or PAP.
article_snippet: Previously, PAP has been seen as an unwanted side effect of a different prostaglandin used in another prescription-only cosmetic cream Latisse, which causes the eyelashes to grow.
article_snippet: In rare cases, the drug also causes irreversible brown pigment to appear in the eye.
article_snippet: US professor of ophthalmology,