Glaucoma Eye Surgery

Glaucoma is ophthalmologic disease that appears in major nerve of vision (optic nerve) and it damages the optic nerve and nerve fibers that form parts of the retina in the back of the eye. This optic nerve links the light-perceiving tissues of the eye with the parts of the brain that process visual sensation. Loss of the visual field is major sign of glaucoma and in consequence optic nerve may be damage. Once it is damaged, visual losses are not reversible. If the glaucoma is not diagnosed and treated in time, it can progress to failure of central vision and blindness. The primary objective of glaucoma surgery is to diminish the amount of pressure in the eye and reduce or prevent loss of vision. This eye disease can affect people of all ages but more commonly it occurs in people above 40 years of age.

Some basic symptoms that may be experienced as a suspect of glaucoma such as-loss of peripheral (side) vision, headache, blurred vision, difficulty or inability to adjust vision in darkened rooms, difficulty focusing on close work, rainbow-colored rings or halos around lights, frequent need to change eyeglass prescriptions, diabetics and thyroid diseases. Certain preventive exercise is not identified but ophthalmologist suggests that -avoid smoking and excessive alcohol, eat a healthy diet, keep your weight down, exercise, take nutritional products and be sure to see your eye specialist on a regular basis to make balance increased intraocular pressure.

The treatment for the glaucoma disease is performed through these following methods such as-laser surgery, incisional surgery and eye drops/medicinal treatment. But the most popular form among these is laser surgery. In eye drop/medicinal procedure of treatment, medicinal drops are given in diseased eyes to control the eye pressure depending on the type of glaucoma and systemic condition. During incisional surgery, an incision is made in the eye and a flap of tissue covers the incision allowing a slow release of fluid from the inside of the eye to the outer layers. In more complicated cases-perhaps after one or two trabeculectomies have not been adequate to reduce the eye pressure-a silicone tube is placed inside the eye. This small device drains fluid to the outer layers of the eye. This is also called a filtering procedure. Laser surgery is another option to treat glaucoma more effectively and it hardly takes 20-25 minutes in successful completion. This laser eye treatment procedure is also known as argon laser trabeculoplasty. Through laser surgery, a minute but powerful beam of light is used to make several small scars in the eye's trabecular meshwork (the eye's drainage system). The scars help increase the flow of fluid out of the eye.

Recuperation period depends on the type of treatment and condition of eyes. Overnight stay may require in incisional surgery whereas patient can return after 1-2 hours after the laser glaucoma surgery. Patient can resume all normal activities very soon after the laser treatment.