Glaucoma Procedures

Glaucoma is a very complex disease that can cause great harm to a person's eyesight. A common treatment for various forms of glaucoma is eye drops to lower the eye pressure. The eye drops work to lower the amount of aqueous humor fluid that the eye produces. The decrease in fluid helps to lower the pressure in the eye. The use of eye drops alone can slow the glaucoma or even stop it from getting worse.

When non-surgical treatments like eye drops fail to stop the glaucoma from getting worse, there are a number of surgeries that can be done to help lower the pressure in the eye. Laser treatment on the trabecular drain uses a special laser focused specially on the trabecular drain to reduce the pressure. The procedure is painless and can be performed right in your ophthalmologist's office within 10 to 15 minutes.

Trabeculectomy is a procedure dedicated to patients who have tried eye drops and laser treatments but had failed results. The procedure requires a small drainage hole to be created in the eye that will allow for the aqueous fluid to drain from the eye. By creating this new drainage system the eye will contain less fluid and have a lower eye pressure. The type of surgery requires that patients have regular visits with their surgeon after surgery to make sure that the drainage hole is functioning properly.

The alternative to trabeculectomy surgery is tube shunt surgery. Rather than the surgeon creating a drainage hole in your eye, a small tube is placed inside your eye. The tube acts like a drain to remove the excess fluid from your eye. Tube shunt surgery is used when a surgery believes that a trabeculectomy will not produces results as strongly. Like trabeculectomy surgery, tube shunt surgery requires a number of follow up visits to ensure proper functionality of the tube and drainage from the eye.