Glaucoma is one of many chronic conditions we commonly treat in our office. In a basic sense, "glaucoma" refers to a family of ocular diseases in which the fluid pressure inside the eye ("intra-ocular pressure" or "IOP") is too high. This high pressure can crush and damage delicate structures inside the eye, namely the optic nerve. Damage to the optic nerve can result in loss of sight. Vision loss with glaucoma is typically gradual and characteristically starts in the peripheral vision, moving slowly (over years or decades) toward the central vision. For this reason, glaucoma patients rarely have any symptoms until very late in the disease process.

 

Sight loss from glaucoma cannot be reversed; treatment aims to lower the intra-ocular pressure to prevent further damage. First-line treatment for lowering IOP involves topical eye drops. The majority of glaucoma patients are managed with eye drops alone.

For some glaucoma patients, however, eye drops are either not sufficient to lower the pressure, or they are not tolerated well (medication allergies, etc). For these patients, there are surgical procedures aimed at lowering IOP by allowing fluid outflow from the eye.

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Read more about the surgical options for glaucoma here