Shannath L. Merbs, MD, PhD, FACS

Shannath Merbs, MD, PhD, FACS is a fellowship-trained oculoplastic surgeon with University of Maryland Eye Associates as Professor of Ophthalmology in January, 2020. She specializes in cosmetic and reconstructive procedures of the eyelids, orbit and tear drainage system. 

Dr. Merbs received her MD, PhD from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. After completing an ophthalmology residency and oculoplastic surgery fellowship at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital, she joined the faculty at Wilmer and practiced there from 1997-2019 before moving to the University of Maryland.  She is board-certified in ophthalmology and is a member of the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery and the American Academy of Ophthalmology. 
 
Dr. Merbs treats eyelid malpositions such as ptosis and dermatochalasis (drooping eyelids), entropion and ectropion (eyelids turning inward or outward), and trichiasis (misdirected or abnormal eyelashes). She treats cancers of the eyelids and orbit as well as performing reconstructions after Mohs surgery. Dr. Merbs manages thyroid eye disease using medications and surgery to reduce eye bulging and eyelid retraction. In addition, she treats traumatic injuries of the eyelid and orbit and performs dacryocystorhinostomy (DCR) surgery and Jones tubes procedures for blocked tear duct conditions.
 
Dr. Merbs has been working to improve the treatment of orbital fractures, thyroid eye disease and orbital tumors by using patient specific-implants, preoperative planning and intraoperative navigation. She participates in multidisciplinary orbital surgery symposiums worldwide and is particularly interested in the conveying the ophthalmologist’s perspective on orbital surgery.

Dr. Merbs is actively involved in research to improve the outcome of surgery for trachomatous trichiasis (TT), the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide. She developed a new surgical instrument called the TT clamp to aid non-physician surgical technicians who perform the surgery to correct the trichiasis.  She was a co-investigator in a clinical trial funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Tanzania to test the outcome of surgery using the TT clamp versus the standard instrumentation. Dr. Merbs is also the lead author of the World Health Organization manual for trichiasis surgery. She is currently studying how modifications to surgical technique may affect the surgical outcome in an NIH-funded clinical trial in Ethiopia.