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A novel patient‐oriented numerical procedure for glaucoma drainage devices
Author(s) -
Mauro Alessandro,
Massarotti Nicola,
Mohamed Salahudeen,
Uña Ignacio Rodríguez,
Romano Mario R.,
Romano Vito
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.741
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 2040-7947
pISSN - 2040-7939
DOI - 10.1002/cnm.3141
Subject(s) - trabecular meshwork , glaucoma , human eye , intraocular pressure , aqueous humor , materials science , biomedical engineering , optics , ophthalmology , engineering , medicine , physics
The present work analyses the performance of four glaucoma drainage devices, by means of a novel patient‐oriented numerical procedure. The procedure is based on the three‐dimensional geometry reconstruction from the stacks of tomographic images of a human eye, at different angles, on meshing and on thermo‐fluid dynamics modelling activities, carried out on the reconstructed computational domain. The current three‐dimensional eye model considers anterior chamber (AC), trabecular meshwork, Schlemm's canal, and collector channels, making use of generalised porous medium approach for modelling ocular porous tissue and cavities. The intraocular pressure (IOP) management inside AC of human eye is analysed, by comparing the results obtained for four drainage devices implanted in a human eye for glaucoma treatment, ie, ExPRESS shunt, iStent inject, SOLX gold micro shunt, and the novel silicon shunt device. The numerical results allow predicting the effects of the installation of these implants on human eyes, in terms of IOP decrease, aqueous humour velocity, pressure, friction coefficient, and local Nusselt number, pointing out the clear distinction between pre‐operative and post‐operative eye conditions for different glaucoma surgical techniques.