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Yes. Although you will never be cured of glaucoma, treatment
often can control it. This makes early diagnosis and treatment
important to protect your sight. For newly diagnosed glaucoma, treatment
using medication is most often used; however, new research findings
show that laser surgery is a safe and effective alternative for
glaucoma treatment.
Glaucoma treatment may include:
Medicine: Medicines are the most common early treatment
for glaucoma. They come in the form of eyedrops and pills. Some
cause the eye to make less fluid. Others lower pressure by helping
fluid drain from the eye.
Glaucoma drugs may be taken several times a day. Most people have
no problems. However, some medicines can cause headaches or have
side effects which affect other parts of the body. Drops may cause
stinging, burning, and redness in the eye. Ask your eye care
professional to show you how to put the drops into your eye. In
addition, tell your eye care professional about other medications
you may be taking before you begin glaucoma treatment.
Many drugs are available to treat glaucoma. If you have problems
with one medication, tell your eye care professional. Treatment
using a different dosage or a new drug may be possible.
You will need to use the drops and/or pills as long as they help
to control your eye pressure. This is very important. Because
glaucoma often has no symptoms, people may be tempted to stop or may
forget to take their medicine.
Laser surgery (also called laser trabeculoplasty): Laser
surgery helps fluid drain out of the eye. Although your eye care
professional may suggest laser surgery at any time, it is often done
after trying treatment with medicines. In many cases, you will need
to keep taking glaucoma drugs even after laser surgery.
Laser surgery is performed in an eye care professional's office
or eye clinic. Before the surgery, your eye care professional will
apply drops to numb the eye.
As you sit facing the laser machine, your eye care professional
will hold a special lens to your eye. A high-energy beam of light is
aimed at the lens and reflected onto the meshwork inside your eye.
You may see flashes of bright green or red light. The laser makes
50-100 evenly spaced burns. These burns stretch the drainage holes
in the meshwork. This helps to open the holes and lets fluid drain
better through them.
Your eye care professional will check your eye pressure shortly
afterward. He or she may also give you some drops to take home for
any soreness or swelling inside the eye. You will need to make
several followup visits to have your pressure monitored.
Once you have had laser surgery over the entire meshwork, further
laser treatment may not help. Studies show that laser surgery is
very good at getting the pressure down. But its effects sometimes
wear off over time. Two years after laser surgery, the pressure
increases again in more than half of all patients.
Conventional surgery: The purpose of surgery is to make a
new opening for the fluid to leave the eye. Although your eye care
professional may suggest it at any time, this surgery is often done
after medicine and laser surgery have failed to control your
pressure.
Surgery is performed in a clinic or hospital. Before the surgery,
your eye care professional gives you medicine to help you relax and
then small injections around the eye to make it numb.
The eye care professional removes a small piece of tissue from
the white (sclera) of the eye. This creates a new channel for fluid
to drain from the eye. But surgery does not leave an open hole in
the eye. The white of the eye is covered by a thin, clear tissue
called the conjunctiva. The fluid flows through the new opening,
under the conjunctiva, and drains from the eye.
You must put drops in the eye for several weeks after the
operation to fight infection and swelling. (The drops will be
different than the eyedrops you were using before surgery.) You will
also need to make frequent visits to your eye care professional.
This is very important, especially in the first few weeks after
surgery.
In some patients, surgery is about 80 to 90 percent effective at
lowering pressure. However, if the new drainage opening closes, a
second operation may be needed. Conventional surgery works best if
you have not had previous eye surgery, such as a cataract
operation.
Keep in mind that while glaucoma surgery may save remaining
vision, it does not improve sight. In fact, your vision may not be
as good as it was before surgery.
Like any operation, glaucoma surgery can cause side effects.
These include cataract, problems with the cornea, inflammation or
infection inside the eye, and swelling of blood vessels behind the
eye. However, if you do have any of these problems, effective
treatments are available.
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