A retrospective case series, by German glaucoma surgeon and canaloplasty expert Prof Norbert Koerber, demonstrates the efficacy and safety of Nova Eye Medical’s proprietary iTrack canaloplasty technology over a 48-month follow-up period.
The unpublished case series data was presented as part of the official scientific program at the virtual meeting of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ESCRS), 2 – 4 October 2020. It coincided with the establishment of Nova Eye Medical GmbH, the company’s wholly owned German sales subsidiary.
ab-interno canaloplasty with iTrack… acts… to flush out the eye’s drainage channel and lower IOP, thus enabling patients to remove the ongoing burden of administering drops
A pioneer of the canaloplasty procedure, Prof Koerber has been using the iTrack in clinical practice for nearly two decades for the treatment of severe glaucoma. In these patients, iTrack is performed via an ab-externo approach to reduce intraocular pressure (IOP) and patient reliance on anti-glaucoma medications. Importantly, iTrack has been shown to defer or eliminate the need for invasive surgical options such as trabeculectomy, which can cause a number of challenges for patients.
Recently, Prof Koerber augmented his glaucoma treatment paradigm to include the use of iTrack via an ab-interno approach for cases of mild-moderate glaucoma. This corresponds with the industry-wide adoption of minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) procedures, which seek to preserve the conjunctiva and sclera and thereby improve the risk-benefit ratio of glaucoma surgical intervention.
In the case series presented at ESCRS 2020, Prof Koerber analysed the efficacy and safety outcomes of 23 eyes that underwent iTrack ab-interno canaloplasty in conjunction with cataract surgery and four pseudophakic eyes that underwent iTrack ab-interno canaloplasty as a standalone procedure.
iTrack was found to be highly effective, maintaining a sustained reduction in IOP from 19.76 ± 5.22 mmHg at baseline to 14.0 ± 2.78 mm Hg (n=21), 15.53 ± 2.8 mmHg (n=24), 14.58 ± 3.76 (n=22) and 14.25 +-3.11 mmHg (n=11) at 12, 24, 36 and 48 months respectively. iTrack was also shown to reduce patient reliance on medications, with the mean number of medications falling by more than 50% from 1.93 at baseline to 0.9 at 48 months.
Approximately one-third of patients in the case series were categorised as controlled glaucoma with complete intolerance to medication.
“Typically, many of my patients experience unwanted side effects from glaucoma medication and often fail to administer the drops as prescribed. For these patients, ab-interno canaloplasty with iTrack offers an early surgical intervention that acts in a similar way to angioplasty to flush out the eye’s drainage channel and lower IOP, thus enabling patients to remove the ongoing burden of administering drops.”
Commenting on the iTrack data presented at ESCRS 2020, Director of Nova Eye Medical, Tom Spurling, said, “Canaloplasty has a rich history in Germany. It was formally recognised in 2014 as the as the new ‘gold standard’ in the surgical treatment of glaucoma by the patient advocacy group German Federate Eye Association. Since this time the work of Prof. Koerber and colleagues has firmly established the role of canaloplasty as the standard of care for glaucoma surgery.
“We will continue to support the important role of iTrack for ab-externo canaloplasty in Germany, and in the broader European market. The ability of iTrack to achieve the same clinical outcomes as trabeculectomy, but without the unwanted sides effects and bleb-related complications, offers significant benefits to both patients and the broader healthcare system. We will also ramp up our local German infrastructure to support the growing role of iTrack via an ab-interno approach for earlier stage glaucoma,” added Mr Spurling.
Read the abstract for Long-term results of Ab-interno canaloplasty (ABiC) combined with phacoemulsification here.
