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January is Glaucoma Awareness Month. It is an opportune time to have a routine, comprehensive eye exam to screen for the disease and catch it early if detected. If you already have glaucoma and initial efforts to treat it are not working, your next step might be a minimally invasive procedure with Dr. Anne Keating at RiverView Health.

Glaucoma is a disease related to a build-up of pressure within the eye that can damage the optic nerve, which carries the images you see through your eyes to the brain. Glaucoma often happens when fluid builds up in the front part of your eye. That extra fluid increases the pressure in your eye, damaging the optic nerve.

A leading cause of irreversible blindness in the United States, glaucoma does not have any noticeable symptoms in its early stages. Vision loss progresses at such a gradual rate that people affected by glaucoma are often unaware of it until their sight has already been compromised.

Glaucoma can cause:

• Blurry vision
• Halos around lights
• Blind spots in peripheral vision
• Headaches with sharp pain

Glaukos iStent

Glaucoma is often treated with prescription eye drops. However, if more treatment is needed, Dr. Keating offers the Glaukos iStent procedure at RiverView to treat the most common type of glaucoma.

A minimally invasive surgery, the iStent procedure involves a small titanium implant placed to help lower eye pressure by improving the drainage of fluid out of the eye through its natural drainage system.

The iStent is the smallest medical device approved by the FDA and is designed to treat mild-to-moderate glaucoma. The iStent procedure is often combined with cataract surgery and results in minimal manipulation or damage of normal eye tissue. Benefits of the procedure include a faster recovery time and increased safety compared to traditional glaucoma surgeries.

Clinical trials have demonstrated that the iStent may help reduce a patient’s medication burden, reducing the cost, inconvenience, or side effects of using eye drops. The iStent may also help delay or avoid the need for more risky surgical interventions in the future.

According to Dr. Keating, the iStent has an effectivity rate of about 80 percent.

Dr. Anne Keating

Dr. Keating has been performing procedures at RiverView since 2019. She offers her services at RiverView Health through the Eye Consultants of North Dakota.

A Fargo native, Dr. Keating is a graduate of Concordia College (Moorhead, MN) and attended medical school at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. She completed an ophthalmology residency at State University of New York, Buffalo, and a Cornea and Refractive Surgery Fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. Dr. Keating is a clinical assistant professor at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine. She is licensed to practice medicine and surgery in North Dakota and Minnesota.

Dr. Keating does office visits at Crookston Eye Clinic. To make an appointment with Dr. Keating or to learn more about the procedures she offers in Crookston, call the Crookston Eye Clinic at 281-2020.