When is a tube shunt procedure indicated?
Glaucoma tube or shunt surgery may be needed in patients with glaucoma that is not controlled by medications and/or laser treatment. It may be needed either after failure of previous trabeculectomy surgery (or surgeries) or in certain types of glaucoma where traditional trabeculectomy surgery would almost certainly fail. Examples of such patients are patients with neovascular glaucoma, patients who have corneal transplants, etc. What is a tube or shunt or drainage device? Glaucoma tubes come in many different varieties (ie. Ahmed, Molteno, Baerveldt, Krupin, Schocket, etc.). However, all tubes or glaucoma shunts are devices that are implanted in the eye and provide an artificial alternative drainage site for fluid FROM the eye. These devices lower the eye pressure in glaucoma. Most shunt devices look somewhat like a computer mouse, with the body of the device being about the size of an average person’s fingernail. A very tiny tube extends FROM the body of the device. Figure 1 What is d
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