The treatment of glaucoma is undergoing a renaissance. From the advent of minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS), through to new pharmacological agents which overcome the challenges associated with patient compliance, there are now a myriad of glaucoma treatment options. What does this mean for glaucoma patients?
No longer must surgeons take a wait-and-see approach, monitoring patients until structural and functional damage to the optic nerve is considered severe enough to warrant trabeculectomy or tube shunt surgery. Instead, surgeons can now intervene earlier via a number of minimally invasive treatment options to effectively reduce IOP, with the potential to reduce long-term reliance on anti-glaucoma medications and, in some cases, avoid the need for more invasive surgical options.
Nova Eye Medical is at the forefront of efforts to support this shift towards a more proactive, interventional approach to glaucoma treatment. Our proprietary technologies include the iTrack™ family of canaloplasty devices. Not only does canaloplasty comprehensively treat all aspects of the conventional outflow pathway, but it does so without the need to place a stent and without the need to remove or tear tissue. For cases of advanced and complex glaucoma, our Molteno3® glaucoma drainage device technology provides a trusted treatment innovation.
A hallmark of the glaucoma treatment renaissance is that, not only does it allow us to intervene earlier in the treatment of our glaucoma patients, but it enables us to adopt a truly nuanced treatment approach. Traditional surgical options, while effective, have typically been a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach – and we know that the pathophysiology of glaucoma differs markedly from patient to patient. It makes sense that our treatment options also differ, patient to patient. The recent explosion in glaucoma treatments allows us to optimize patient outcomes – avoiding both vision loss and possibly a lifetime of medication use and, in some cases, eliminating the need for more invasive surgical options.
