Glaucoma valve Glaucoma valve A glaucoma valve is a medical shunt used in the treatment of glaucoma to reduce the eye's intraocular pressure (IOP). The device works by bypassing the trabecular meshwork and redirecting the outflow of aqueous humour through a small tube into an outlet chamber or bleb. The IOP generally decreases from around 33 to 10 mmHg by removing aqueous on average 2.75 microliters/min. Professor Anthony Molteno developed the first glaucoma drainage implant, in Cape Town in 1966. Following on the success of the Molteno implant, several varieties of device have been developed from the original, the Baerveldt tube shunt,
Glaucoma 2 million people in the United States. It occurs more commonly among older people. Closed-angle glaucoma is more common in women. Glaucoma has been called the "silent thief of sight" because the loss of vision usually occurs slowly over a long period of time. Worldwide, glaucoma is the second-leading cause of blindness after cataracts. The word "glaucoma" is from Ancient Greek "glaukos" which means blue, green, or gray. In English, the word was used as early as 1587 but did not become commonly used until after 1850, when the development of the ophthalmoscope allowed people to see the optic nerve