Implant offers huge promise

A Belfast woman has become the first patient in the UK or Ireland to receive a new medical procedure to stop the progression of glaucoma.

Under the trabecular micro-bypass glaucoma stent surgery, an internal micro-bypass implant known as an iStent was fitted into 66-year-old Mary McCall's eye by the Cathedral Eye Clinic (CEC) in Belfast.

Made from surgical grade titanium it weighs only 60µg and measures 0.5mm x 0.25mm x 1mm.

Consultant Colin Willoughby from the CEC announced the procedure's success during National Glaucoma Week and described it as 'a massive step forward for the treatment of glaucoma with the potential to help so many people'.