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Comment by iamjdg | Hacker News Reader

Not to brag, but to brag, this is nothing. I’ve had a gas bubble injected into my eye to repair a detached retina (pneumatic retinopexy).

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/w...

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Things people I know have had in their eyes I didn't know could be in eyes:

- The aforementioned gas bubble

- The same but an oil bubble, when you need the pressure to remain there for longer (and a second surgery to remove it)

- A 1mm bypass stent to reduce intra-ocular pressure

The bypass stent is interesting. Was that relatively recent? I heard of ALT and SLT, both laser therapies as I understand it, for iop conditions. I’m wondering about the effectiveness of laser therapy versus a stent.

Several years ago. Germany is extremely strong in ophthalmologic surgery - I've heard something like 3 of the top 10 eye clinics in the world are here in Berlin, though I doubt such broad measurements are really meaningful - and I think several MIGS devices were approved here a few years before elsewhere in the world.

I think laser therapies were avoided in this case because the patient was young.

I actually have IOP problems and have discussed these treatments with my dr. The answer is really it depends. In my case, the problem is that the little channels which drain the fluid are too small and get clogged by debris from my flaky retina (so it's two problems coming together to make one big problem). I could get a laser treatment to burn and widen those channels, but it generally lasts for a year or two and then you have to do it again. The high powered laser additionally can burn your retina as it diffuses through the vitreous. A stent doesn't have those problems, but it does come with some chance of complications. For now I'm managing just fine with eyedrops. It's annoying to have to put them in every day, but they definitely work. One side effect is that my iris might turn brown after some more months, sadly.

Awesome - here's an instructional video: https://www.aao.org/clinical-video/pneumatic-retinopexy-rhem...

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