By Chong Wee Hou, Optometrist, International Eye Cataract Retina Centre, Singapore
The XEN Glaucoma Gel Implant is a new form of treatment for patients with glaucoma in Singapore. Following approval from Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority, the medical device was officially launched in Singapore by Allergan on 22 November 2017 at One Farrer Hotel & Spa.
The XEN Glaucoma Gel Implant is tiny tube about the length of an eyelash. The implant is a surgical device designed to lower high eye pressure in patients with open angle glaucoma where medications alone are insufficient and/or where previous surgical treatment has failed.
The XEN Glaucoma Gel Implant surgery can be done as a day surgery procedure and patients need not be admitted overnight in a hospital. When implanted in the eye, the XEN Glaucoma Gel Implant becomes a soft and flexible material that will not dissolve over time.
In a U.S. pivotal trial conducted in refractory glaucoma patients, the XEN Glaucoma Gel Implant reduced intraocular pressure from a mean medicated baseline of 25.1 (+ 3.7) mmHg to 15.9 (+ 5.2) mmHg at the 12-month visit (n=52). The mean baseline number of intraocular pressure-lowering medications was 3.5 (± 1.0) versus an average use of 1.7 (± 1.5) medications at 12 months.
The XEN Glaucoma Gel Implant will add to the Singapore ophthalmologist’s armamentarium of treatment options for glaucoma patients from all over the world, but especially from Asia, who come to Singapore for their eye treatment.
Dr Au Eong Kah Guan, Medical Director and Senior Consultant from International Eye Cataract Retina Centre, joined a group of senior ophthalmologists from Singapore and Malaysia in the first XEN User Group Meeting in the region at Oasia Hotel in Singapore on 25 November 2017.
