Aqueous Shunts

Aqueous shunts are devices that are used to reduce the eye pressure in glaucoma by draining the aqueous humour (natural fluid of the eye) from inside the eye to a small blister or bleb behind the eyelid.
Draining the aqueous humour, using a shunt, reduces the pressure on the optic nerve that causes loss of vision in glaucoma. The purpose of lowering the eye pressure is to prevent further loss of vision. Control of the eye pressure with an aqueous shuntwill not restore vision already lost from glaucoma.
Aqueous shunts have various other names such as tube implants, glaucoma tube shunts, glaucoma drainage devices and glaucoma drainage implants. These all refer to the same thing. Although there are many types of shunts available, two main typesare in use at Moorfields Eye Hospital Dubai and they function in a similar fashion.
These are called the Ahmed Glaucoma Valve and The Baerveldt Glaucoma Implant.