Article Text
Abstract
Background/aims Glaucoma is a chronic disease that requires lifelong monitoring and treatment. However, its control is limited due to discontinuous intraocular pressure (IOP) monitoring related to the practitioners’ office hours. Implantable telemetric IOP sensors have made self-measurements possible and provide important information regarding the IOP profiles of patients. However, limited long-term monitoring data are currently available.
Methods In the ARGOS-01 study, a telemetric IOP sensor was implanted in the ciliary sulcus of six patients with open-angle glaucoma during cataract surgery between 2011 and 2012. This study reports telemetric monitoring data collected by self-tonometry and automated measurements and during outpatient visits, including an analysis of one active patient with several years of follow-up. The long-term safety, tolerability and functionality were assessed in the remaining patients during the last visit.
Results The follow-up period was up to 10 years, in which almost 25 000 IOP measurements were performed. The patients had excellent tolerance of the implanted sensor and did not experience sensor-related discomfort or complications. The active patient reported easy handling of self-tonometry and did not experience long-term restrictions in activities of daily living due to the implanted sensor. Telemetric data provide an insight into patients’ measurement routines and IOP fluctuations.
Conclusion So far, our data suggest good long-term safety, tolerability and functionality of the implanted sensors up to almost ten years. Such sensors may help facilitate patients’ self-measurements of IOP. This disease monitoring method should be investigated further to determine if it helps improve wider patient experience, engagement and visual prognosis for those being treated for complex glaucoma.
- Glaucoma
- Intraocular pressure
Data availability statement
Data are available on reasonable request.
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Data availability statement
Data are available on reasonable request.
Footnotes
Contributors Guarantor of study: IS. Conception and design of study: IS and AK. Acquisition of data: IS. Analysis and plotting of data: IS and AK with the support of the company Implandata Ophthalmic Products (no funding of this long-term study, no conflict of interest). Interpretation of data: IS and AK. Drafting the manuscript: IS. Revising the manuscript: IS, AK, NP and PW.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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