Bionic-EyE:

Glaucoma surgery simulator mimicking microfluidic properties in a human eye

Abstract

As one of the increasing eye diseases, glaucoma is the condition of abnormally high intraocular pressure (IOP), which may cause vision loss. This research introduces a new surgery simulator for Minimally Invasive Glaucoma Surgery (MIGS), mimicking the microfluidic structure and properties of the glaucoma eye. First, we derived a hydraulic circuit model describing the aqueous humor flow rate and the IOP change before and after the MIGS procedure. Based on this model, we designed and developed a surgery simulator with an artificial eye model and a fluidic circulating system. By experiments using the simulator, we evaluated the aqueous humor flow rate and the IOP change. Then its validity as a surgical simulator is verified. This simulator can be used for the surgical training of ophthalmologists and evaluations of new MIGS instruments.