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Patient information

MIGS: Minimally Invasive Glaucoma Surgery

Small glaucoma procedures, often done with cataract surgery, that improve the eye's own drainage with a quicker recovery than traditional surgery.

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Close-up of the drain: a tiny stent passing from the front of the eye through the meshwork into the canal behind it.

What it is

MIGS improves the eye's natural drain through tiny openings: a stent smaller than a grain of rice, a goniotomy that opens a strip of the drain, or viscodilation that stretches the canal behind it. These are often combined, and often done with cataract surgery. MIGS is for mild to moderate glaucoma. It lowers pressure and the number of drops needed, though less than a trabeculectomy or tube shunt.

The day of surgery

  • Outpatient, with numbing and light sedation. With cataract surgery it takes about 15 to 30 minutes.
  • You go home with a shield over the eye. Bring a driver.

Afterward

  • Vision is blurry for a day or two and improves over the first week. A little blood inside the eye is common and clears within days.
  • Use the drops exactly as prescribed: typically an antibiotic for about a week and a steroid tapered over about a month.
  • Your glaucoma drops may be continued, reduced or stopped depending on your pressure. Ask which to use.
  • Visits at about one day, one week and one month.
  • For the first couple of weeks, avoid rubbing the eye, swimming and heavy lifting.

Call the same day if

  • Pain that is getting worse rather than better
  • Vision that gets worse after it had started to improve
  • Increasing redness, or discharge from the eye
  • New flashes, a shower of floaters, or a curtain over your vision