Elie Dolgin, PHD, Science Journalist

Pressure-relief eye tech advances toward approval

Elie Dolgin • March 22, 2024

FDA panel’s green light on glaucoma wearable device offers hope in sight.

On March 21, an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave its unanimous blessing to a piece of wearable technology that alleviates symptoms of the progressive eye disease glaucoma.

Known as the FSYX Ocular Pressure Adjusting Pump (OPAP) system, the device is designed to ease the pressure that accumulates in the eyes of people with glaucoma. This elevated pressure poses a risk of damaging the optic nerve that relays visual information to the brain, leading to irreversible vision loss.

“This will give our toughest-to-treat patients additional options,” says John Berdahl, an ophthalmologist in Sioux Falls, S.D., and the founder of Balance Ophthalmics, the company developing the OPAP system.


Continue reading at IEEE Spectrum.

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