Devices and techniques for treating glaucoma
AssigneeSolx, Inc.
InventorJohn H Shadduck
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for non-invasive treatment of a patient's trabecular meshwork to treat primary open-angle glaucoma. The system and technique applies energy directly to media within clogged spaces in a patient's trabecular meshwork to increase aqueous outflow facility by (i) localization of microimplantable bodies carrying a selected exogenous chromophore, such as particles with a gold surface, in deeper regions of the trabecular meshwork, and (ii) irradiation of the microimplantables with a selected coherent wavelength having a power level and pulse duration that is strongly absorbed by the surfaces of the microimplantables.
Claims11
A method for treating trabecular meshwork regions of a human eye, comprising the steps of:
- (a) localizing a volume of particles carrying a selected chrontiophore within spaces of the meshwork;
- (b) irradiating the particles with a beam of photonic energy having a wavelength, power, and pulse duration that is absorbed by the selected chromophore;
- (c) wherein the chromophore comprises gold within the surface layer of said particles thereby applying energy to the irradiated region of the meshwork.
A method for applying energy to a patient's trabecular meshwork, comprising the steps of:
- (a) localizing microimplantables with a gold surface within spaces of the meshwork;
- (b) non-invasively irradiating the meshwork region with coherent light pulses having a wavelength between 380 nm and 820 nm;
- (c) wherein the power level, pulse, and pulse interval are selected to cause the microimplantables to absorb energy and thereby apply energy to surrounding media.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.