Glaucoma surgery aims to save sight by creating a pathway for fluid to leave the eye. Its success depends on managing the body’s healing response as it tries to close that pathway.

The VW51 glaucoma implant began with a question: what if postoperative failure is driven by the progressive loss of tissue porosity?

This talk traces the VW51’s bench-to-bedside journey – from challenging assumptions and developing models to test porosity, through studies, prototype redesign and validation, to first-in-human implantation, clinical evaluation and commercial hurdles.

At its heart, the VW51 story is about turning clinical frustration into a design problem – and asking whether a safer, more predictable and less burdensome glaucoma operation can be engineered from first principles to improve outcomes for patients worldwide.