Revolutionary iStent implant restores sight

By Brandie Umar - Executive Director of Content | June 8th, 2010

A revolutionary implant weighing just 60 microgrammes has restored a womans' eyesight and prevented the onset of blindness causing glaucoma. Being dubbed the 'millimetre miracle', the iStent is a breakthrough in glaucoma treatment.

Glaucoma is a progressive eye disease that causes irreparable damage to the optic nerve. Damage to the optic nerve causes patients to loose peripheral vision and eventually leads to blindness. Glauoma is caused when fluid is unable to drain from the eye. This fluid build up increases the intraocular pressure, damaging the optic nerve which controls electrical images sent to the brain to define vision.

The iStent implant - the size of a single grain of rice and the smallest device to have ever been implanted into the human body - drains the fluid which puts pressure on the optic nerve. iStent is being viewed as a major breakthrough in opthalmology treatment and offers great hope to the 67 million people worldwide at risk of blindness from

glaucoma.

The first successful procedure using the iStent was performed at the Cathedral Eye Clinic in Belfast, Ireland.

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