Glaucoma patients being blinded by failing BC healthcare system and Vancouver Coastal Health Authority

Updated on Friday, February 17, 2012 at 9:14PM by Robert M Schertzer, MD, MEd, FRCSC

I’ve been letting off warning cries for months but to no avail. Now I have to watch as my patients are going blind because I practice in a region where the public healthcare system is a failure. This is not a so-called developing nation but rather beautiful Vancouver, BC Canada.

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Canaloplasty glaucoma surgery

In this video, I present a Canaloplasty glaucoma surgical procedure that I performed in December 2011 at the University of British Columbia Eye Care Centre.

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Canadian Medical System is a failure when it comes to glaucoma surgery

Updated on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 at 3:22PM by Robert M Schertzer, MD, MEd, FRCSC

Well, I can no longer say that the Canadian Healthcare system, at least in here in BC, is a success when it comes to caring for glaucoma patients. I sit now almost 12 hours after putting a patient on the within 8 hr emergency surgery list and fear he will be blind before I get to operate.

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Exploring Reddit for discussing glaucoma articles

Always looking for new ways of using technology in education, I recently created a sub-reddit for glaucoma articles. As not everyone is familiar with reddit.com, it is worth a brief explanation before you head over there to check out http://reddit.com/r/talkingaboutglaucoma to become actively involved in the learning experience.

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Suture to pull Ahmed Glaucoma Valve tube tip away from cornea

This video shows a technique to pull a glaucoma tube away from the corneal endothelium using a suture, thus avoiding an extensive re-operation. It is based on a technique Dr R Gupta from India submitted to the Film Festival at the World Glaucoma Congress 2011.

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Imaging - a marketing pitch to patients or ancillary test used appropriately?

Is imaging being pushed by some eye care providers to patients as an integral part of a full eye exam thus making patients feel pressured to pay for imaging that may not be needed or in their best interests? Or, are our guidelines out of date and imaging is now more important than visual field testing?

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Tobradex NOT to be used for itchy/burny eyes; they can cause glaucoma!

Updated on Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 10:17AM by Robert M Schertzer, MD, MEd, FRCSC

I was referred a patient as a glaucoma suspect due to high intraocular pressure readings when seen by his referring Optometrist. The eye pressures were fine on the day I saw the patient and I was ready to give him my standard explanation for ocular hypertension being a risk factor for glaucoma but that a high pressure reading does not = glaucoma. As he was about to leave, he pulled out a bottle of Tobradex that he had been prescribed to take whenever his eyes felt gritty! Let’s talk about this one.

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Revising infection prone Trabeculectomy using donor scleral graft

This patient had undergone a trabeculectomy with mitomycin (MMC) in both eyes more than 4 years ago and has recently been suffering from recurrent bleb leaks and infections. As can often happen, especially with the older approach of the day of limbal-based surgery (conjunctival incision in the fornix) with the MMC applied over a more localized area, the bleb enlarged and thinned over the years. For this particular patient, in whom I opted to suture a scleral patch graft over the scleral flap, most of the decisions regarding the approach were decided upon DURING the surgery.

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