Jennifer Mathews: A few months ago, Janelle Kelly nearly lost her peripheral vision because of glaucoma, an eye disorder that Dr. Richard Cohn calls a plumbing problem.
Richard Cohn: If the drain doesn't work as well as the faucet, then the pressure inside the eye goes up, and that damages the optic nerve.
Jennifer Mathews: This tiny stainless steel shunt repairs the problem.
Richard Cohn: The purpose of this is to actually allow a little bit of fluid to escape from the eye in patients when their eye pressure is too high.
Jennifer Mathews: That's how most glaucoma surgeries work, but because the shunt is so small, it has benefits over the others, including less margin for error and less operating time.
Richard Cohn: The traditional glaucoma surgeries can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour-and-a-half to do. The nice thing about the express glaucoma shunt is it's only a ten-minute procedure.
Jennifer Mathews: Doctor Cohn says, the results are encouraging.
Richard Cohn: The studies have shown that patients who are using maybe two glaucoma medications, prior to surgery, might end up on just one or maybe no medications after surgery.
Jennifer Mathews: Out of the 30 patients he has implanted, Dr. Cohn says it's worked in 28, including Janelle.
Janelle Kelly: I see fine. I can read. I can -- whatever.
Jennifer Mathews: She says she can't even feel her implant.
Janelle Kelly: I don't even know it's there.
Jennifer Mathews: Which helps keep her mind and her eye on other things. This is Jennifer Mathews reporting.
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