A Less-Invasive, Safer Glaucoma Treatment That Can Help Restore Vision

In her late 60s, Lynette Hoehn began developing medical issues that included glaucoma in both of her eyes. In glaucoma, pressure inside the eye compresses the optic nerve, which causes irreversible vision damage.

Ms. Hoehn received several different kinds of therapy, including special eye drops and laser treatments. But the pressure inside her eyes continued to rise.

Then Ms. Hoehn underwent a special kind of procedure called a trabectome performed by UH ophthalmologist Douglas Rhee, MD that is less invasive and safer than the traditional trabeculectomy.

“Now my life is entirely different,” Ms. Hoehn says. “I actually can enjoy reading and doing things again.”

"For properly selected patients, we can offer this and it can achieve a controlled pressure without engendering risks, inconveniences or discomforts of a trabeculectomy," Dr. Rhee says. "Furthermore, if a trabectome fails to work, we haven't lost anything. A trabeculectomy can still be performed and have the same success profile as though the trabectome had never been done."

Learn how Ms. Hoehn’s vision was restored in this video.