Glaucoma Treatment

Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a disorder in which the optic nerve of your eye is damaged. Over time, it worsens. It’s frequently linked to an increase in intraocular pressure. Glaucoma is a disease that runs in families. It is frequently not discovered until later in life.

Intraocular pressure, or the pressure inside your eye, can harm your optic nerve, which sends images to your brain. Glaucoma can cause permanent vision loss or perhaps total blindness within a few years if the damage increases.

Causes of Glaucoma

Aqueous humour, the fluid inside your eye, normally drains out of your eye through a mesh-like channel. The liquid builds up if this route becomes clogged or if the eye produces too much fluid. Experts aren’t always sure what causes the blockage. It can, however, be inherited, which means that it is handed down from parents to children.

Symptoms of Glaucoma

The majority of persons with open-angle glaucoma have no symptoms. If symptoms do appear, it is usually late in the course of the disease. Glaucoma is known as the “sneak thief of eyesight” because of this. The most common symptom is a loss of side vision, often known as peripheral vision.

Angle-closure glaucoma symptoms frequently appear sooner and are more noticeable. It is possible for damage to occur fast. If you have any of these symptoms, seek medical attention as soon as possible.

Symptoms of angle-closure glaucoma usually come on faster and are more obvious. Damage can happen quickly. If you have any of these symptoms, get medical care right away:

• Seeing halos around lights
• Vision loss
• Redness in your eye
• Eye that looks hazy (particularly in infants)
• Upset stomach or vomiting
• Eye pain

Types of Glaucoma

There are two main kinds:

• Open Angle Glaucoma–

  The most prevalent type of glaucoma is open-angle glaucoma. It’s also known as wide-angle glaucoma by your doctor. The trabecular meshwork (the drain structure in your eye) appears to be in good working order, yet fluid does not flow out as it should.

• Angle-closure Glaucoma

  is a kind of glaucoma that is more common in Asia. It’s also known as acute or chronic angle closure glaucoma or narrow-angle glaucoma. Because the drain area between your iris and cornea gets too tiny, your eye does not drain as well as it should. This can result in a sudden increase in ocular pressure. Farsightedness and cataracts, a clouding of the lens inside your eye, are also linked to it.

Less common types of glaucoma include:

• Secondary glaucoma:

  occurs when an underlying ailment, such as cataracts or diabetes, produces an increase in ocular pressure.

• Normal-tension glaucoma:

  occurs when you have blind patches in your vision or your optic nerve is injured despite having a normal eye pressure. According to some specialists, it’s a type of open-angle glaucoma.

• Pigmentary glaucoma:

  Pigment from your iris, the coloured component of your eye, gets into the fluid inside your eye and clogs the drainage canals, causing pigmentary glaucoma.

Glaucoma Treatment

To relieve the pressure in your eye, your doctor may use prescription eye drops, oral medicines, laser surgery, or microsurgery.

• Eye drops: can reduce the amount of fluid produced in your eye or enhance the flow of it out, decreasing eye pressure.
• Oral medication: Your doctor may prescribe an oral medication, such as a beta-blocker or a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor, for you to take. These medications can help with drainage or slow the production of fluid in the eye.
• Laser Surgery: If you have open-angle glaucoma, laser surgery can help to increase the flow of fluid out of your eye. If you have angle-closure glaucoma, it can help you avoid fluid blockage.

Procedures include:

• Trabeculoplasty:

  This opens the drainage area.

• Iridotomy:

  This makes a tiny hole in your iris to let fluid flow more freely.

• Cyclophotocoagulation:

  This treats areas of the middle layer of your eye to lower fluid production.

• Microsurgery:

  A trabeculectomy is a treatment in which your doctor builds a new channel to drain fluid and relieve eye pressure. It’s possible that this type of surgery will need to be repeated. A tube may be implanted by your doctor to aid in the drainage of fluid. This procedure can result in eyesight loss that is temporary or permanent, as well as bleeding or infection.

When is Glaucoma Treatment needed?

Glaucoma treatment should be sought immediately for those who have been diagnosed with the disease.