Tube-Shunt Surgery For Glaucoma

Surgery Overview

Tube-shunt surgery (seton glaucoma surgery) involves placing a flexible plastic tube with an attached silicone drainage pouch in the eye to help drain fluid (aqueous humor) from the eye. This type of surgery is usually done after a trabeculectomy that failed. If a person already has or is likely to form scar tissue in the eye, this type of surgery may be done at the start.

Tube-shunt surgery can be done with the person asleep (general anesthesia) or with anesthetic applied only to the eye (local anesthesia).