Ocular decompression process

• US 4,030,480 A
• Filed: 05/13/1976
• Issued: 06/21/1977
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/1976
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ernst Jochen Meyer
• Original Assignee: Ernst Jochen Meyer
• Inventors: Meyer, Ernst Jochen
• Primary Examiner(s): Pace, Channing L.
• Application Number:
  US05/686,056
• Time in Patent Office: 404 Days
• Field of Search: 128/1.3, 128/1.5, 128/303.1, 128/410
• US Class Current: 600/10
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2007/0004 Eyes or part of the face surrounding the eyes
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 7/12 Devices for heating or cooling internal body cavities
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 9/00781 Apparatus for modifying intraocular pressure, e.g. for glaucoma treatment drainage implants in general A61M27/002

Abstract

This ocular decompression process is a surgical procedure and a physical therapy for the alleviation of glaucoma. The invention contemplates a surgical operation on the eye, at which a metallic implant is introduced through the sclera into or adjacent to the anterior chamber of the eye. The extra-cameral portion of the implant, fashioned into a loop, is buried under fibrous and epithelial tissue. After the surgical incisions have healed, the coil of a tuned radio-frequency circuit is brought into the field of the implant by being positioned exterior to the eye. The implanted wire acts as the secondary of a radio-frequency transformer and generates heat sufficient to create a tract from the anterior chamber to the subconjunctival tissue. This tract serves as a drain through which the aqueous humor flows from the inside of the eye to its surface, thereby reducing the pathologically elevated intraocular pressure. The application of radio-frequency energy to the implant may be repeated as necessary to maintain satisfactory tension.

Claims

1. A method for reducing intraocular pressure, comprising the following steps in the order listed, of which those designated (a), (f), (g) and (j) are conventional, and those designated (b), (c), (d), (e), (h), (i) and (k) are wherein the improvement comprises,

a. inducing anesthesia

b. introducing a metallic wire, band, or ring, hereinafter the thermal electrode, through or immediately adjacent to the anterior chamber of the eyeball in such manner that (i) the pupil of the eye is not obstructed, and (ii) those portions of the thermal electrode not within sclera or anterior chamber are everywhere covered by fibrous or epithelial tissues,

c. introducing a second metallic band or wire, hereinafter the antenna electrode, of greater cross section than the thermal electrode, onto the surface of the sclera of the eyeball, in such manner (i) that the antenna electrode is everywhere covered by fibrous or epithelial tissues, (ii) that each of the ends of the antenna electrode overlaps one of the ends of the thermal electrode, (iii) that the antenna electrode forms more or less the arc of a circle, and (iv) that the circle described by the aforesaid arc is susceptible, by passive rotation of the eyeball, of being brought into a plane more or less parallel to the frontal plane of the face,

d. connecting each end of any thermal electrode which is not a ring with that end of the antenna electrode which overlaps it, so as to establish a closed loop electrical circuit,

e. connecting each end of any thermal electrode which is not a ring and which is not connected with an antenna electrode with the opposite end of that thermal electrode so as to form a closed loop electrical circuit,

f. closing, by means of surgical sutures, the sites at which the thermal and antenna electrodes were introduced beneath the tissues, so that these electrodes and their junctions are everywhere covered by tissue and are nowhere exposed to air,

g. infiltrating an aqueous solution under that portion of the conjunctiva which covers the thermal electrode,

h. positioning, immediately anterior to the eyeball and more or less coaxial with the circle described by the electrode(s), an insulated induction coil which is wired into and is part of a tuned radio-frequency circuit,

i. impressing upon the aforesaid induction coil, a radio-frequency voltage sufficient to induce a current in the circuit formed by the electrode(s), such that the segment of the thermal electrode which is not bathed in fluid becomes hot and by its heat creates a passage through which fluid may drain from the anterior chamber into the fibrous tissue on the surface of the eyeball,

j. controlling the onset, intensity, and duration of the radio-frequency voltage by means of electronic measuring and timing devices.

k. repeating steps (g), (h), (i), and (j) above at such intervals and for such periods of time as may be required to maintain a sufficient drainage of fluid from the eye.