GLAUCOMA FAQs
What is Glaucoma?
Can Glaucoma be treated?
How is Intraocular Pressure (IOP) involved?
What are the Risk Factors For Developing Glaucoma?
Do All People With High IOP Get Glaucoma?
Why Is Corneal Thickness Relevant?
Do Patients With Glaucoma Always Have High IOP?
Is Treatment Different For Normal Tension Glaucoma?
What Kind Of Glaucoma Do I Have?
What Should I Expect When I Attend the Glaucoma Clinic?
SURGICAL OPTIONS
Trabeculectomy
Tube/Shunt
Non-Penetrating
OTHER PROCEDURES
New Procedures
Revision Procedures
TUBES/SHUNTS
Implantation of a glaucoma drainage device (GDD - also known as a tube or aqueous shunt) works by diverting aqueous from the front of the eye via a tube to a drainage plate stitched onto the white of the eye, much further back than where a trabeculectomy trap door is stitched.
It is felt that less scarring occurs further back in the eye, so tubes may give better long-term success in eyes where trabeculectomies have already failed.
Tubes are a useful option when a trabeculectomy with mitomycin has failed and needling to resurrect the trabeculectomy has been unsuccessful. Tubes are usually considered as the first choice surgical procedures in eyes in which there are is a high risk of trabeculectomy failure or at increased risk of hypotony (low pressure complications) with trabeculectomy surgery. In these eyes tube surgery may be highly successful and safer than trabeculectomy surgery.
For more information 