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Show New operation for Glaucoma piercing the thin protective outer conjunctival tissue. This operation is quicker, simpler, sim-pler, involves less tissue damage and risk of scarring, Dr. Brown said. "It's less surgery for the same goal." Fifteen of 20 initial patients, 75 percent, had successful results, he said, even though they all had had an average of three previous conventional con-ventional operations that failed. One woman, 79, after five failed glaucoma operations, now can see well enough to read, sew and drive a car. By ALTON BLAKESLEE Science Editor Associated Press A new inside-out operation is overcoming some extremely obstinate ob-stinate cases of glaucoma, Dr. Reay H. Brown of Emory University reports. re-ports. He operates from inside the eye to create a tiny hole that relieves the build-up of pressure from eye fluid that cannot drain out of the eye because be-cause of blocked drainage channels. This dangerous elevated pressure is glaucoma. More than 1.5 million Americans have some loss of vision from the disease, and 5,400 become blind from it annually. Eyedrops, and laser therapy, can usually " control glaucoma. But about 20,000 people each year need surgery to create a new drainage hole in the sclera, the white outer part of the eye. , , TypicaUy, the surgeon makes an incision from the outside, through the conjunctiva, the thin tissue covering the sclera, and then makes a hole or window in the sclera. The problem: This window must stay open, not healing shut, while the cut in the overlying conjuctiva must heal and close. Certain drugs can help this selective healing process. ;: Dr. Brown uses a high-tech experimental ex-perimental approach to avoid this problem. He described it recently to Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB),the leading voluntary organization organ-ization devoted to research into all blinding diseases. He enters the eye from the side opposite the spot where he will create the "window," later sewing that entry point shut. Then he passes pas-ses a new instrument, the trabecu-phine, trabecu-phine, which he and associates designed, de-signed, across the fluid-filled front chamber of the eye until he reaches the sclera on the other side. His trabecuphine has a tiny round cutting blade that spins at 1,000 rpm to make a round hole ia the sclera from the inside and stops short of |
