Glaucoma Eye Surgery
Surgery involves either laser treatment or making a cut in the eye to reduce the intraocular pressure. The type of surgery your doctor recommends will depend on the type and severity of your glaucoma and the general health of your eye.
Your eye constantly makes aqueous humor. As new aqueous flows into your eye, the same amount should drain out. The fluid drains out through an area called the drainage angle. This process keeps pressure in the eye (called intraocular pressure or IOP) stable. But if the drainage angle is not working properly, fluid builds up. Pressure inside the eye rises, damaging the optic nerve.
When Can Surgery Help?
will give you prescription eye drops or oral medicine to lower the pressure in your eye. If drugs don’t work, surgery is the next step.
If the medicine causes severe side effects like high blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, or impotence, you may want to try surgery instead. Some people need it right away if their eye pressure is high and puts their vision at risk.
There are a few different types of surgery for glaucoma that can help lower the pressure in your eye:
- Trabeculectomy (tra-BECK-yoo-LECK-toh-mee)
- Glaucoma implant surgery
- Minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS)
What is trabeculectomy?
This type of surgery is usually used to treat open-angle glaucoma. It’s done in a hospital and usually takes less than an hour.
The surgeon will create a tiny opening in the top of your eye. The opening will be under your eyelid, where no one will see it. This opening allows extra fluid in your eye to drain away, lowering pressure in your eye.
Usually, you’ll be awake during this surgery — but you’ll get numbing medicine and medicine to help you relax. You can usually go home the same day, but you’ll need someone to drive you home.
What is glaucoma implant surgery?
This type of surgery is used to treat several types of glaucoma, including congenital glaucoma, neovascular glaucoma, and glaucoma caused by an injury. It’s done in a hospital and usually takes 1 to 2 hours.
In this operation, the surgeon implants a tiny tube, or shunt, onto the white part of your eye. The tube helps extra fluid drain out of your eye, lowering your eye pressure.
Usually, you’ll be awake during this surgery — but you’ll get numbing medicine and medicine to help you relax. You can usually go home the same day, but you’ll need someone to drive you home.
What is minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS)?
If you have mild glaucoma, your doctor may recommend a new approach called minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS). This also lowers eye pressure, but it has fewer risks and side effects and helps you recover faster.
frequently asked questions
Glaucoma is harmful to vision because of the damage instilled on the optic nerve. Everything you see, that information is taken to the brain via the optic nerve. Any damage to it compromises the quality and quantity of information your brains gets, thus the loss of vision.
Glaucoma is known to cause blindness but it can be prevented. If it is diagnosed at an early stage, the damage can be controlled. If you don’t treat it at the right time, you are most likely to lose peripheral vision first and then the central vision, which may result in complete blindness.
The go to test for Glaucoma is a simple and painless procedure called Tonometry. It measures the internal pressure of your eye, so the eye doctor can identify any alarming changes. Other common forms of tests used to diagnose Glaucoma include checking your eyesight and the health of the optic nerve.
Normally, Glaucoma is treated with prescription eye drops and medicines. You must take these regularly for them to be effective. In some cases, Glaucoma can be treated by therapy or surgery. To be clear, any treatment for Glaucoma does not restore eyesight, it is to prevent further vision loss and damage. That is why the sooner it is diagnosed, the better.
Unfortunately, there is no single number or percentage to be considered as normal eye pressure. On average, your eye pressure should be around 12-22 mg hg, but this may vary for different individuals. There have been cases of patients having low eye pressure than 22 and still experience worsening of symptoms.
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