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Description
Ocular hypertension can arise when the conventional outflow route for the aqueous humor of the eye becomes partially blocked, leading to an increase in interocular pressure (IOP) with associated risk of developing Glaucoma. Increasing the unconventional outflow route is a potential mechanism to decrease IOP, and certain types of Minimally Invasive Glaucoma Surgery (MIGS) are designed to exploit this by creating a fluid bypass, which decreases or removes resistance to fluid entering the unconventional pathway.
We present an extension of a mathematical model of the unconventional flow, previously developed by Tweedy et al., 2025. The model includes fluid flow and albumin transport in the choroid and suprachoroidal space and is extended to include a simple example of a suprachoroidal stent (an example of MIGS) which allows fluid from the anterior chamber to enter the uveo-scleral pathway directly.
The presence of the stent leads to additional complications for numerical analysis, such as loss of symmetry in the ocular fluid flow, strong pressure gradients near the stent and nonlinear interactions between the interocular pressure and unconventional flow.
Numerical results are presented which capture key features of the unconventional flow and show a reduction in IOP. This suggests that tapping the unconventional outflow could be effective at mitigating ocular hypertension.
