To say Dr. Mohamed Sayed is proud of New Vision’s Glaucoma Institute is an understatement. After all, the fellowship-trained glaucoma surgeon left his position as an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the prestigious Bascom Palmer Eye Institute to join the New Vision practice with the intent to help establish a top-notch glaucoma treatment facility comparable to ones at major academic medical centers.
“When I joined New Vision in July 2020, we set out to build a state-of-the-art glaucoma institute and purchased the latest, most advanced glaucoma equipment on the market,” said Dr. Sayed. “New Vision Eye Center had grown and expanded to the extent that they needed more physical space to accommodate our addition, so they built the institute just across the street from the main campus.
“A lot of procedures were not able to be performed here prior to my arrival and that of my fellow surgeon Dr. Sarah Khodadadeh. Now, anyone with glaucoma can get world-class care without ever leaving Vero Beach.”
Glaucoma – one of the leading causes of blindness for people over the age of 60 – “is a group of eye conditions that damage the optic nerve, the health of which is vital for good vision. This damage is often caused by an abnormally high pressure in your eye,” according to Mayo Clinic.
You have a higher risk of developing glaucoma if your parents or siblings have the disease, if you are African American or Latino, and possibly if you are a diabetic or have cardiovascular disease. The two most common forms are primary open-angle glaucoma and angle-closure glaucoma.
Open-angle glaucoma is often called the ‘sneak thief’ of sight because it has no symptoms until significant vision loss occurs. It develops slowly and without noticeable sight loss for many years. In open-angle glaucoma, the angle in your eye, where the iris meets the cornea, is as wide and open as it should be, but the eye’s drainage canals become clogged, causing an increase in internal eye pressure and subsequent damage to the optic nerve.
“Open-angle closure is a tricky condition because there are no symptoms,” Dr. Sayed explained. “Blind spots in peripheral vision go unnoticed because the central vision is very good until the very last stage of the disease just before the patient goes blind. The only way to get control of this is to have checkups on a yearly basis.”
Angle-closure glaucoma, commonly known as narrow angle glaucoma, presents itself suddenly and painfully. The angle is closed in many or most areas, causing increased eye pressure, which could lead to optic nerve damage and possible vision loss. Symptoms of acute angle closure glaucoma include severe pain to the eyes and head, blurred vision or sudden loss of sight, nausea or vomiting from the eye pain, and starbursts around bright lights.
“Angle closure can be a chronic problem or an emergency problem,” Dr. Sayed continued.
“If you experience any of the symptoms you should see a doctor immediately. If it’s caught early, sometimes all we have to do is take out cataracts to fix the problem. Not only does removing the cataracts relieve the pain, but the new lenses will correct your vision at the same time.”
All types of glaucoma can progress to blindness, and early intervention is the only way to diagnose and arrest the progression. Certain types are associated with more severe vision loss, including a genetic strain called pseudoexfoliation. This form of glaucoma is an inheritable condition that also causes other eye diseases that make cataract surgery difficult.
The earlier you find out if you have this condition, the better the treatment and long-term outcome.
Treatment for glaucoma is all about precision medicine, according to Dr. Sayed. “The latest technology at the Glaucoma Institute allows us to give individualized diagnosis and treatment to the patient. One very useful modality that we have is called optical coherence tomography. This advanced technology uses rays of light to measure a cross section of the retina and has been very effective in detecting early glaucoma.
“Our toolbox is full of techniques for every type and stage of glaucoma, and new advances are coming all the time. Still, most cases are detected in the annual checkup where the ophthalmologist notices something in the optic nerve that looks suspicious.”
Nearly 80 percent of Dr. Sayed’s patient are referred by local optometrists. “Optometrists are trained to notice changes or suspicious features when they are customizing your glasses.
They are your first line of defense, and we work as a team.”
Dr. Sayed is a noted researcher who recently received a grant from the American Glaucoma Society to conduct cutting-edge research on the use of novel artificial intelligence technologies in glaucoma management.
“This is very exciting research where we use artificial intelligence to predict features of progressing glaucoma in the future by identifying features in the visual field based on the machine learning algorithm signs.
“We are studying data points of visual fields from thousands of patients and trying to identify those features that predate the diagnosis. It’s really all about prediction.
“This is a huge research project that is not fully developed yet.
“I’m spearheading the efforts and working with computer engineers, computer scientists, data scientist and federal institutions,” he said. “Machine learning is the future.
“We’re also researching and developing surgical techniques and we’re part of developing two shunt implantation techniques reserved for the most advanced cases of glaucoma. We modified the technique to make the surgery less expensive and more minimally invasive than it was, and surgeons around the world have already adopted some of the techniques we developed. At the Glaucoma Institute we do all cutting-edge surgery from minimally invasive to the most complex surgeries for advanced and complex glaucoma including re-operations and combined cataract and glaucoma surgery.”
Dr. Mohamed Sayed completed fellowships in glaucoma as well as pediatric ophthalmology at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute.
And is one of only a few surgeons in the country who are dual fellowship trained in these sub-specialties.
He also holds fellowships from the International Council of Ophthalmology and the Royal College of Surgeons in the United Kingdom.
He can be reached at the Glaucoma Institute at New Vision Eye Center. 772-257-8700.