Glaucoma, a disease characterized by progressive damage to the optic nerve, is one of the leading causes of blindness in the U.
S.
But now, an Israeli company, has come up with a new laser based technology that gives hope to the more than three million Americans currently suffering from the disease.
Glaucoma is often called an aging related disease because it often, but not always, manifests itself after the age of 40.
It is also referred to as the silent thief of sight because it usually has no early symptoms.
Typically, the onset of glaucoma is discovered when your eye doctor gives your eye a pressure screening.
Eyes that are at risk for glaucoma will have higher than normal pressure in their eyeballs.
If this pressure remains too high for too long a period, it can damage the optic nerve.
In a normal, healthy eye, aqueous humor is continuously produced.
It is then drained through something called the trabecular meshwork, which is a collection of tissues in the eye located around the base of the cornea.
The aqueous humor drainage takes place at the same rate as it was produced.
As the eye ages, however, this trabecular meshwork may become clogged, thus preventing the necessary drainage from taking place.
it this happens, the pressure on the optic nerves will continue to build up, potentially to an unhealthy level.
High enough pressure will damage the optical nerves resulting in glaucoma.
Therefore, any glaucoma treatment has to be targeted towards either reducing the pressure on the nerve or reducing the amount of aqueous humor produced in the eye, or both.
The goal of reducing eye pressure is usually attained with topical eyedrops or oral medications.
If these treatments are ineffective, your doctor may recommend surgery to prevent further vision loss.
A very popular laser surgery technique used for the treatment of glaucoma is called laser trabeculoplasty.
This technique uses a highly focused laser beam to cut through the whites of your eye and burn off part of the trabecular meshwork beneath it.
This causes the remainder of the trabecular meshwork to expand, in effect, making it less dense and more permeable.
The net result it that the aqueous humor can now more easily drain from the eye, thus relieving the pressure.
In the best cases this will manage to stop the damage and save your current vision.
In the worst cases you may develop cataracts and possibly lose your sight.
As you might imagine, this is a very delicate operation.
So delicate in fact that there are very few surgeons in the world that can adequately perform the operation.
At least that was true before the Israeli company IOPtima developed a new breakthrough laser technology that promises to make the entire process so easy that it can be performed by most eye surgeons around the world.
The breakthrough device is called the OT134.
It's a laser and it's based on carbon dioxide laser technology, a technology commonly used in skin resurfacing.
One advantage of a carbon dioxide laseris that it minimizes bleeding to a greater degree than other types of lasers.
It's intensely focused heat immediately cauterizes the wounds as it creates them.
In addition, with the IOPtima laser, it automatically switches off just before the eye membrane is perforated - at exactly the same time when the liquid is able to pass through the membrane, but when the membrane is thick enough to keep the eye protected.
Performing this procedure manually is so difficult that most surgeons will not chance performing it.
The IOPtima, however, relieves the surgeon from having to perform it, by performing all of the necessary intricate steps itself.
This is what makes the laser revolutionary.
According to IOPtima, it's lasers will "make it possible for eye-surgeons everywhere to become instant experts in a surgical technique that was once performed by a select few.
" If they're right, millions of glaucoma sufferers will be forever grateful.