EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – The El Paso Eye Surgeons Clinic in West El Paso is at the forefront of eye and vision care as it became one of the first practices in the country to administer an iDose implant last month.
Currently limited to only 15 practices across the country, this revolutionary technology has surged in the past five years to help treat glaucoma, an eye disease that is one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness around the world.
“(iDose Implant) is a small canister that is filled with glaucoma medication that is lasting three to five years in patients, and it’s really going to impact how we manage our glaucoma patients,” said Dr. Mark Gallardo, the medical director of El Paso Eye Surgeons and Summit Surgical Center.
El Paso Eye Surgeons were granted access to the technology as they were part of the new procedure’s clinical trials, and were the highest enrollers of patients in the study, Gallardo said.
This revolutionary procedure marks a significant step in eye and vision care, as Gallardo explained that ophthalmologists have been trying to move away from using eye drops to treat glaucoma because of their adverse effects.
“Now that we have iDose, we’re going to be able to modify how we manage patients. Instead of having a patient put in an eye drop every single day that causes red eye, darkening of the eyelids, fat atrophy around the eyes, we’re now able to implant this medication so patients won’t be subject to all the caustic effects of the eye drops itself,” Gallardo said.
Gallardo added glaucoma is more prevalent in Hispanic communities, and with many El Pasoans already suffering from dry eye, the eye drops used to treat glaucoma only aggravate the dryness even more.
The exacerbation of dryness in the eye can in turn lead to Ocular Surface Disease, Gallardo said. Symptoms of this disease include dry, gritty, sandy sensations in the eyes among other problems.
While the iDose implant is now commercially available, Gallardo explained that currently they can only administer it to people who are suffering from open-angle glaucoma.
He added that because the procedure is still relatively new, it is currently only covered by traditional Medicare.
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