An Artificial Nano-Drainage Implant (ANDI) for Glaucoma Treatment

Author

Pan, Tingrui ; Brown, J. David ; Ziaie, Babak

Author_Institution

Dept. of Ophthalmology, Minnesota Univ., Minneapolis, MN

fYear

2006

fDate

Aug. 30 2006-Sept. 3 2006

Firstpage

3174

Lastpage

3177

Abstract

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness. The loss of sight in glaucoma is due to the permanent optic nerve damage which is the result of a chronic elevated intraocular pressure. In this paper, we report a completely new concept to treat glaucoma using a nano-drainage device fabricated through MEMS and nanofabrication technologies. This involves replacing the functionality of diseased drainage pathway for aqueous humor outflow (i.e., trabecular meshwork). By enhancing aqueous humor outflow, the artificial drainage implant will lead to a decrease in the intraocular pressure and a halt in the progression of glaucoma

Keywords

artificial organs; bioMEMS; diseases; eye; nanobiotechnology; patient treatment; MEMS technologies; aqueous humor outflow; artificial nanodrainage implant; glaucoma treatment; intraocular pressure; irreversible blindness; nanofabrication technologies; permanent optic nerve damage; Biomedical optical imaging; Biomembranes; Blindness; Implants; Micromechanical devices; Nanofabrication; Nanoporous materials; Nanoscale devices; Polymers; Proteins; Aqueous humor; MEMS; artificial drainage; biofluidics; glaucoma; nanofabrication;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2006. EMBS '06. 28th Annual International Conference of the IEEE

Conference_Location

New York, NY

ISSN

1557-170X

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0032-5

Electronic_ISBN

1557-170X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEMBS.2006.260147

Filename

4462471