AAO 2024: MIGS: Devices and incisional techniques

Brian Francis, MD, from the Doheny Eye Institute and the UCLA Department of Ophthalmology, shared insights on MIGS techniques and the labs and didactic available while at this year's AAO meeting held in Chicago, Illinois.

Video Transcript:

Editor's note: The below transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Brian Francis, MD:

Hello everyone. My name is Brian Francis, and I'm a glaucoma specialist. I work for the Doheny Eye Institute and the UCLA Department of Ophthalmology out there in Los Angeles. So we have our presentation is actually a didactic and two skills transfer labs. So our topic is minimally invasive glaucoma surgery techniques. And what we've done is we brought together all of the currently available minimally invasive glaucoma surgery techniques that are FDA approved, and we put them essentially under one roof, so that during the didactic you're there to learn about how to do the different procedures and some of the data, and what are some appropriate patients to choose for the procedure itself. And then in our skills transfer labs, we have actually all of the companies have brought their devices, and there's dry lab or wet lab available so that all the attendees can get hands on with each of the devices and learn exactly how to how the setup is, how to do the procedure.

And we have all the instructors are seasoned glaucoma specialists who have done MiGs, you know, since, since its inception. So we're really excited to be able to bring that, all the technologies together under one roof. We think it's, I think it's the only opportunity to have every single MiGs technique and technology available at one sitting. So we're very proud of that. Well, I think it's very good for for several different glaucoma specialists. So if you're just getting started, or if you're a comprehensive ophthalmologist who's looking to get into MiGs, and you're not sure what procedure would be right for you, then this is a great area to where you can see all of them at once and make your decision, you know, based on, hands on, you know, ability to do the procedure and what what you feel speaks to you. I think it's also great for even seasoned glaucoma specialist, we're looking to add new techniques to their armamentarium. We do have, for example, in our in our lab, today and tomorrow, we have some brand new techniques that have really just launched. We're getting back into the suprachoroidal Outflow space. So we're happy to have, you know, kind of the latest launched procedures.

And that's not that one's not even in the in the media guide. So we have, we try to get the latest and greatest for everyone. Well, I think it helps. It's part of skills transfer. So I think anytime you know, when you're a surgeon and a physician, you need to evolve your practice. You need to evolve your skills. So we're, you know, I'm always telling the residents and our trainees, the fellows, that you don't just learn during your your residency or fellowship. This is a lifelong learning process. And so you should be practicing glaucoma and, you know, bringing in new technologies, new techniques, new procedures and new information, you know, on a yearly basis. And so this, you know, this meeting and our course, I think, is one way that we're allowing people to do that so they can bring that, that knowledge and their technology back to their practice and use it in their own patients. So I just, so I don't forget them, I'm going to read out all of the technologies that are available in our didactic and in our lab. So we have trabecular micro bypass stents, obviously, such as eye stent and hydrous. We have all the AB internal goniotomy and visco dilation procedures such as the cahok Dual Blade streamline, travex Omni iTRAQ advance. And we also have, as I said, the newest technology, which is going back into this suprachoroidal space, and that's with the ion Trek cyclopent alloflow procedure. So we've moved beyond, you know, the problems with cypass, and we're getting back into the suprachoroidal space