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For over 40 years the standard surgical treatment for glaucoma was a procedure called a trabeculectomy.
In a trabeculectomy, the ophthalmic surgeon would make a hole in the wall of eye to allow fluid from the inside of the eye to flow out of the eye and then get resorbed by the blood vessels in the conjunctiva (the mucous membrane that covers the white part of the eye).
This surgery often resulted in a large decrease in the Intraocular Pressure (IOP). Reducing the IOP is the goal of glaucoma surgery because multiple studies show that if you can reduce the pressure the progression of glaucoma slows.
The problem with trabeculectomy is that although it frequently lowers the pressure, it also has a fairly high complication and/or failure rate. This led to some reluctance to perform the procedure unless the glaucoma was severe, or the pressure was very high. As a result of those issues there has been a search during the last 40 years for something that had a lower complication rate and could be more easily deployed earlier in the disease process.
Enter Minimally Invasive Glaucoma Surgery, or MIGS. There are now several types of surgeries that fit in the MIGS category and many of them are used in conjunction with cataract surgery. They are utilized much earlier in the disease process and when combined with cataract surgery they can be used to not only help control the pressure over the long term but can
Demodex folliculorum -- often just called demodex -- is a mite that occurs naturally on many people's faces and resides in hair follicles, particularly the follicles of eyelashes. Most of the time, these mites cause no problems whatsoever. However, sometimes an infestation can become particularly parasitic, resulting in unhealthy eyelid margins. This inflammation of the eyelid is called blepharitis. Blepharitis can be caused by caused by several things, including allergies, bacterial overgrowth, Rosacea and also by demodex.
Often, diagnosis of mite infestation by your eye doctor can be difficult. The symptoms can mimic other causes of blepharitis, which is one of the most prevalent diseases we see.
The most common sign of a demodex infestation is a cylindrical cuff or "sleeve" at the base of the eyelash. Symptoms include redness, itching, burning, dry eyes and general discomfort in the eyelid.
The probability of demodex infestation increases gradually with age, with nearly 100% of people having demodex in their eyelashes after age 70. If there are no symptoms present, nothing needs to be done about demodex, as they are a natural occurrence. If any of the before-mentioned symptoms are present, however, eyelid hygiene using tea tree oil is often the first line treatment. Tea tree oil is known to kill the mites and there are now several brands of “eye lid scrubs” that come with tea tree oil in them.
There are also often in-office methods available for exfoliating eyelids.
If you're experiencing any demodex symptoms, make
Read more: Chances Are Good You Have These Mites in Your Eyelids
