Do you know, 60 million Americans are always at risk for developing glaucoma? With 120,000 people blinded by the disease, 2 million are visually impaired by it. The most unfortunate part is 1,000,000 more people’s suffering from the blinding disease, but not being aware of it!
As a treatment for glaucoma, laser treatment although has already come to stay in the first line of therapy in Europe, Japan, and Canada, the disease’s rapidity and demand for more sophisticated technology have given birth to a novel laser device that is expected to revolutionize glaucoma treatment. Thanks to Prof. Ehud Assia, of Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School of Medicine.
Prof. Assia has designed a device called the OTS134 that can equip the most practicing eye surgeons with the ability to master complex glaucoma surgery and that too very quickly!
Unlike the penetrating glaucoma surgery — the difference between whose success and failure may amount to just a few microns — the new non-penetrating one does not require years of rigorous training and great skill, which only a small number of surgeons at leading international ophthalmology centers can perform.
The new technique uses the CO2 laser’s unique characteristics, which is generally used for different kinds of comparatively non-sensitive surgeries like cosmetic and skin.
This new technique may eventually lead to glaucoma surgery in the blink of an eye.
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