Swiss ophthalmologist André Mermoud and his team have performed, at the Ophthalmic Hospital Jules Gonin in Lausanne ,Switzerland, a world-first surgery for the treatment of glaucoma. It consists in implanting a tiny tube (diameter of 50 microns) behind the iris in order to eliminate the excessive pressure in the eye. The surgery, performed under local anesthesia, lasts about 30 minutes. Dr. Mermoud, a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, is Head of the Glaucoma Department of the University-based Ophthalmic Hospital Jules-Gonin in Lausanne.
The medical team reported that the insertion of the micro-tube is still considered a prototype, although already ten persons underwent successfully this special surgery. Details of the surgery were shown on the Swiss television news and Dr. Mermoud was interviewed. The project of non-penetrating glaucoma surgery is sponsored by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF). Glaucoma encompasses a group of diseases that can damage the eye’s optic nerve and lead to vision loss, even blindness.
In Switzerland almost 100,000 people have the glaucoma disease. More than 70 million people suffer from glaucoma around the world. An estimated two million Americans have open-angle glaucoma, but an exact count is unclear. Half of people with glaucoma are unaware of this problem because the condition causes no symptoms. Elevated intraocular pressure in the eye occurs in five to 10 million Americans but only about 10% of such people develop glaucoma because of this pressure. Across all age groups, according to a 2000 report, the prevalence of glaucoma in African Americans is about 3.5% compared to about 1% in Caucasian Americans. In addition, US studies suggest that glaucoma develops earlier in African population groups (starting at age 45 instead of 60 in Caucasians). And, their risk for blindness once they have glaucoma is 14 to 17 times that of Caucasians with glaucoma. In a major glaucoma study in Barbados, where most people are of African descent, over 10% of those 50 and older had open angle glaucoma, and over 15% were afflicted after 70.Dr. Mermoud was also instrumental in creating, with other Swiss ophthalmologists, “Vision For All”, a foundation that financed in 2003 the construction of an ophthalmic hospital in Mori, a village in Andhra Pradesh, Southern India, for the poor who become blind because of the total lack of adequate treatment. He spends his vacations operating without charge in that hospital. Other Swiss colleagues take turns so that the hospital can function normally. In 2004 Dr. Mermoud will be spending a total of three months in India on his expenses.
