How do I Treat Glaucoma?
Most forms of glaucoma are chronic, which means that they develop slowly and last for a long time. Glaucoma can be treated with both medication and surgery. Through treatment, glaucoma cannot be cured and lost vision cannot be restored, but further vision loss can be prevented.
Medications
At this time, the best way to treat glaucoma is to lessen the intraocular pressure (IOP) which causes optic nerve damage. In order to lessen pressure in the eye, drugs decrease the volume of aqueous fluid within the eye. Miotics and epinephrine are two classes of drugs that increase the outflow of aqueous fluid, and help lessen pressure.
Beta-blockers and carbonic anhydrase inhibitors are drug classes that lessen pressure by decreasing the amount of aqueous fluid made in the eye.
Adrengic agonists lessen pressure by both decreasing how much fluid is made, and helping its outflow.
Oral medications are used only in serious cases of glaucoma because they can have serious side effects. Most cases can be controlled with eye drops.
Prosagladin analogs are a new class of drugs to treat glaucoma. They work by increasing outflow through a secondary path.
Surgery
Laser surgery is another method to lessening pressure in your eye. Surgery can open the drainage channels of your eye to lessen pressure. Laser surgery works in lessening pressure immediately; however, in more than 50% of patients, the pressure increases again two years after surgery.
In what is known as conventional surgery, the surgeon creates a new channel for fluid to drain from the eye. Conventional surgery is usually done if medicine and laser surgery do not work in controlling pressure.
Note: For a further description of any information on this page, please speak with your doctor.