New goniotomy device goes bladeless

Sight Sciences Inc. this week announced the launch of a manually operated device (Sion) used in ophthalmic surgical procedures to excise trabecular meshwork.

According to the company, the device features a bladeless design, micro-engineered and precision manufactured using specialized lasers, excises tissue without cutting. Instead, the device grasps and removes diseased tissue as the surgeon sweeps the instrument around Schlemm’s canal with a single smooth motion.

“Goniotomy is an essential procedure in my glaucoma practice,” Amir Cohen, MD, MBA, founder of The Glaucoma Care Center of New Jersey, said in a statement. “As one of the new Sion users, I was able to excise and remove several clock hours of diseased trabecular meshwork tissue.”

Arkadiy Yadgarov, MD of Omni Eye Services of Atlanta, said in a statement he was pleased with the impact the device had on the procedure.

“I was surprised and impressed at how smooth Sion made the goniotomy procedure,” he said. “The bladeless design helped the Sion tip navigate along Schlemm’s canal without getting stuck into the scleral back wall.”

According to Sight Sciences, the bladeless technology of device was developed with ophthalmic surgeons to improve safety and ease of use by eliminating the need to navigate sharp instrumentation within the eye’s anterior chamber and iridocorneal angle anatomy.

The company also noted that design features are intended to drive up the efficiency and completion of the excisional tissue removal procedure.

“The Sion Surgical Instrument is an exciting addition to our robust product portfolio and shows our continued dedication to successfully developing and commercializing minimally invasive, interventional approaches to prevalent eye diseases,” said Paul Badawi, co-founder and CEO of Sight Sciences. “While our flagship Omni Surgical System has the broadest and most potent MIGS mechanism of action (trabecular meshwork, Schlemm’s canal, and collector channels) and therefore the largest addressable market, the Sion Surgical Instrument enables us to serve the growing goniotomy market subsegment with our existing commercial infrastructure and another best-in-class solution.”