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Glaucoma is not something you can ignore or put behind your back! This eye condition can cause worrisome symptoms that can affect your daily activities. If you have been trying eye drops or laser treatments to treat glaucoma but without satisfactory results, then surgery might become your next step. Glaucoma surgery can lower the intraocular pressure (IOP) inside your eye to prevent further damage to the optic nerve. Trabeculectomy is the most common type of glaucoma surgery. It aims at removing part of the eye-drainage tubes to make it easier for fluid to exit the eye. Other types of glaucoma surgery include trabeculotomy, viscocanalostomy, deep sclerectomy, and trabecular stent bypass.
Glaucoma surgery becomes a necessity when other glaucoma treatments fail. In short, here are the benefits you’re going to get from this surgery:
To prepare you for this surgery, your doctor may do the following:
The steps of glaucoma surgery vary depending on the type. As mentioned before, glaucoma surgery has different types, each with unique steps. In any case, trabeculectomy remains the most common choice to treat glaucoma. This surgery is a very precise surgery that requires local anesthesia and an operating room. Surgery often lasts between 45 and 60 minutes. Here is a quick overview of trabeculectomy’s steps:
Your surgeon will numb your eye by using eye drops and numbing jelly. In addition, you may receive anesthetic medications through IV to keep calm during the surgery.
Next, your surgeon will clean the site and start making an opening in the conjunctiva to get access to the sclera.
Your surgeon will cut a “flap” through the white sclera and create an opening under the flap, precisely at the front of the eye.
To control the rate of fluid drainage and treat glaucoma, your surgeon will use sutures to reattach the edges of the flap to the sclera.
Finally, your surgeon will suture and close the conjunctiva to cover the flap area and fluid drainage.
Don’t expect to feel a lot of pain after surgery, but you may experience minor discomfort and blurry vision. Try to remember the following things during your recovery:
Glaucoma surgery (trabeculectomy) is a safe procedure but it still carries some potential risks, such as:
Glaucoma occurs when the pressure inside the eye increases and affects the blood flow to the optic nerve at the back of the eye. The optic nerve is similar to a telephone cable between the eye and the vrain; when it begins to erode, the transmission of the image from the eye to the brain becomes distorted, which leads to blindness in the end.
You may be an ideal candidate for glaucoma surgery if you’re suffering from glaucoma, especially if you’re an adult with a family history of glaucoma. However, choosing the right type of glaucoma surgery depends largely on the type of glaucoma and its severity.
The average normal pressure in the human eye is from 10 to 21 mm Hg, and in most cases of glaucoma, damage occurs to the optic nerve above 21 mm Hg.
Yes, a family history of glaucoma increases your odds of developing this disease, and if you have glaucoma, you should also tell your relatives to get tested.
– Inside the normal eye, there is a transparent liquid called aqueous humour, which circulates in the front part of the eye. – To maintain a normal eye pressure, the eye constantly produces a small amount of this fluid and excpels an equal amount too. – In cases of glaucoma, the amount of this fluid does not come out of the eye as it should be. – Thus, the pressure of this fluid inside the eye increases, and with time, this pressure may cause damage to the optic nerve, which affects the eyesight over time.
No, but you can alleviate its severity by early detection and appropriate treatment.
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