Glaucoma Treatment

"The loss of vision in glaucoma is permanent, but with early treatment, the damage to vision can be minimised. In some patients, the loss of vision occurs very slowly and treatment may not be necessary. However, most patients do require treatment. This prevents or slows further loss of vision in most patients. Taking the treatment is important, even though the vision may seem normal, because the loss of vision may get worse without the patient noticing.
All treatment for glaucoma is designed to reduce the level of intraocular pressure to a point at which further damage to the optic nerve is prevented. This reduction in the level of intraocular pressure is achieved by a variety of means including eye drops, tablets, laser treatments for glaucoma and surgery for glaucoma. Each has advantages and disadvantages and the choice of the glaucoma management regime best suited to an individual patient should be made as a collaborative decision involving the patient and the ophthalmologist.
Eye drops usually form the first stage of treatment for glaucoma. There are now a wide variety of eye drops which work in a number of different ways. Most commonly the drops act to reduce the amount of aqueous humour being produced by the ciliary body, some increase the outflow of aqueous humour from the eye either by the conventional outflow pathway through the trabecular meshwork, or by the non-conventional outflow pathway (also known as the uveoscleral outflow pathway), and some have a combination effect.
The only tablet commonly used in the treatment of glaucoma is Diamox, which is a very powerful type of water tablet. It is most commonly used in the short term treatment of acute angle closure glaucoma prior to laser iridotomy and is rarely prescribed for long term use due to its side effect profile.
Lasers are used to treat both open and closed angle glaucomas with different lasers and different techniques used according to need.

There are also a variety of types of Surgey for glaucoma depending on the individual needs of the patient.

Treatment for glaucoma is effective and in the vast majority of cases useful sight can be retained for life providing the treatments are used properly and the agreed management regime followed."