The latest treatments for glaucoma

Posted by: Pepose Vision Institute in Glaucoma on August 16, 2018

Glaucoma, the leading cause of irreversible blindness, is a complicated disease in which damage to the opticnerve leads to progressive vision loss. Today, more than 3 million Americans are living with glaucoma, and this number is expected to double by 2050 according to Glaucoma Research Foundation.

Pepose Vision is proud to offer the absolute latest glaucoma treatments:

CyPass® Micro-Stent is a micro-invasive glaucoma surgical device that you can have inserted at the time of cataract surgery to help lower your eye pressure if you have mild to moderate glaucoma. This very small device is positioned in the region of internal fluid drainage of the eye after your cataract is removed and your new intraocular lens implant is placed.

Usually higher eye pressures (glaucoma) develop due to fluid buildup in your eye from a clogged drain. CyPass® is like a tiny pipe that keeps the pathway open, so the fluid can drain the way it’s supposed to. It is injected into position using a micro-syringe via the same incision used for cataract surgery. The device also has lots many little holes on its surface, to increase the drainage even more. CyPass® is too small to be seen with a naked eye but has powerful eye pressure lowering benefits. The FDA study approval included 500 patients who underwent cataract surgery.

The postoperative care and recovery with CyPass® combined with cataract surgery are similar to that of cataract surgery alone. The main difference of the CyPass® over other micro-glaucoma stents is ease of surgery with a high percentage of patients being able to stay off of glaucoma drops.

Visco360 is a surgical device. If we think of the drainage system for the intraocular fluid as a series of internal canals that eventually drain into the veins on the surface of the eye, one reason why the drain can become clogged is if the canals “collapse” and narrow. With Visco 360, a microcannula is used to gain entry into the drainage canal via a micro-incision. A thick fluid is injected into the drainage canal in order to inflate and force open the passageways.

This is a generally painless 5 to 15-minute procedure that can be performed at the same time or separately from cataract surgery. The advantage of Visco 360 is that it can be performed as a stand-alone procedure and does not have to be combined with cataract surgery (which iStent and CyPass do).

Both of these treatments are medical procedures that are submitted to insurance for coverage and reimbursement.

To learn more about glaucoma and our advanced treatments, please click here.

To schedule an appointment, please call us at 636.728.0111 or click here to schedule online.