Glaucoma Gals

       Before I went to capstone on Wednesday, Kierstin, Dr. Rickard and I did a demonstration where we inflated and deflated an eye with the pressure from a water column when raised. This helped we gain better understanding of the eye in general and what increased pressure in the eye actually looks like.       In class time we performed multiple eye surgeries. The main goal for this testing was to ge the inlet tube into the eye. The eye was poked with a needle, and the small tubing was inserted, but this proved to be very difficult because of the flexibility in the tube as well as the small size. Dr. Rickard gave us some tips including have the tube cut on a slant to create more of a point for the insertion. He also sad to spin the needle around to create a slightly larger hole than necessary. With his advice we were able to get it. We then disposed of the eyes into the dumpster.  The rest of my time was spent on the poster. In the coming we...

  Lab time with Brinkley:  Brinkley and I did simulations where we had a water column at an unhealthy eye level (Clamped to a retort stand at the top) and created a system with tubing that connected the water column to a pig eye. We used a needle and placed it inside the anterior chamber. When we moved the water column up and down we observed the eye pressure physically increase and decrease. This was helpful to understand where we needed to insert the tubing for the surgery simulation, and also observe healthy and unhealthy eye pressure.  In Class:  Lab time with Brinkley and Alex:  Pig eye surgery simulation:  This week during our lab time surgery simulation we focused more on surgically implanting the tube into the anterior chamber, rather than making a pocket and implanting an actual valve. This part was really important to learn how to do because without it we can’t see how our valve would actually work because we wouldn’t be able to get any flow....

During class last week we got tube inside eyeball  -cut through the first layer  - poked hole with needle  -rinsed with distilled water  -inserted tube  We practiced some more surgical procedures to prepare for pig head   Along with team worked on poster  Corrected some of my specs on del 7 created ver2  ensured that all materials needed for pig head procedure are ordered for 4/5 

 performed first surgical procedure on pig eye: Brinkley posted pictures  watched videos for future procedure:  glaucoma ahmed valve outflow surgery cataract Uday Devgan MD - Bing video Ahmed® Glaucoma Valve Surgical Animation - Bing video Ordered scissors surgical procedure:   Ordered pig head  had to call Sierra Medical because couldn't find entire pig head  had to order lower jaw and specify that we wanted the entire head because they cost the same  Worked on Del 7:  corrected testing and updated Fady's part because he is no longer on the team Updated budget spent: 

 This week consisted of a pig eye surgery, more manufacturing, testing, and del 7.  In class this week we did the broader impacts discussion and we preformed the pig eye simulation. I believe that the broader impacts format was much better than the essay that students used to have to do.  When we went into the lab to do the surgery simulation we all set up all of the tools and suited up in our scrubs and gloves. Alex was the "main surgeon", Kierstin was the "assistant", and I took notes and pictures. The surgery went really well and we were able to insert the valve into the eye. We did the surgery in all three quadrants because the first two proved to be more difficult, but with a little practice we were able to do it. Here are the notes from the surgery:  Quad 1: Tried quad 1, cut through the pocket so moved to second quadrant  Quad 2:  Poked through again, but tried to salvage Pocket is proving to be very difficult to make Was able to stretch muscle...

  In Class:  We had a team meeting with Dr. Rickard and then with Dr. Gordon.  We then had our broader impacts discussion where we talked about how every device has a lot of impacts on the world and on people in ways we might not have considered before.  Lab:  We did our first surgery simulation this week. We had to take inventory of what tools we had and set up our space before doing the surgery. Brinkley was the note-taker, and Alex and I did the procedure. We used one eye and used two valves to practice the surgery. We also had to put on our PPE before the surgery.  The valve in the image above is the first valve that we used in the simulation. This was the smallest valve that we had manufactured and we thought it would be a good place to start with the surgery because it would be less complex. We cut off the excess tubes at the end because we are not using the suture resistance design anymore.  We started with making a conjunctival incision. This w...