Glaucoma patients have the option of using medication or surgical implants to save their eyesight but the degrees of success vary from surgery to surgery. In order to offer more stable results, a Purdue team came up with a new idea: magnetic implants.
Your usual glaucoma drainage devices are only capable of operating for five years due to the microorganisms that accumulate on the device in all that time. The Purdue device has the advantage of being able to clean itself by using microactuators that vibrate whenever a magnetic field is induced.
Hyowon Lee/ Purdue University
The implant can change its flow resistance as well, which could mean that it can be customized to fit different needs and work around the ever-changing glaucoma that develops differently for different patients.
At the moment, the researchers work alongside the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization to patent the technology and they are hoping to find partners to license it as well, so there might still be a while before we see it at work in the medical field.
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