Glaucoma

Several medications may be prescribed as eyedrops or medicines you take by mouth. Depending on your needs, we may recommend one or a combination of medications to help you reduce eye pressure, reduce the fluid that builds in the eye and causes increased pressure, and minimize damage to your optic nerve. We also use a new medication that can be safely injected into the eye to reduce the number of eye drops you have to take. 

SLT uses a laser with low levels of energy to target select cells within the eye's drainage system while leaving the rest of it intact. This procedure is used to treat open-angle glaucoma. Unlike some laser procedures, it may be safely repeated.  

When the angle between the iris and the cornea is too small, a laser is used to make a small hole in the iris, which helps fluid drain and lowers eye pressure.

This treatment relieves eye pressure by surgically creating a tiny drainage hole near the top of the eye through which fluid can drain. This outpatient surgical procedure is also known as filtration surgery. A shunt may be implanted as part of the trabeculectomy surgery.

This drainage device is a synthetic tube that is inserted through a tiny hole created in the white portion of the eye. The tube allows fluid from inside the eye to drain out of the eye safely. This surgical approach may be recommended if your eye has scarring related to previous eye surgery.

Laser energy is used to decrease the eye’s ability to make the fluid that causes increased eye pressure. This procedure, which is performed in an operating room, may be done with a camera (endoscopic cyclophotocoagulation, or ECP) to help view the area of the eye that produces fluid and to direct the laser energy. The procedure may reduce or eliminate your need for eyedrops.

Some types of glaucoma surgery can be performed with minimally invasive techniques, which use tiny instruments and require smaller incisions. The goal of these procedures is to reduce elevated eye pressure and minimize the need for topical medications. A less invasive approach poses fewer risks for complications and may lead to a faster recover but results in more modest pressure-lowering than traditional glaucoma surgery. Minimally invasive glaucoma surgery is appropriate for people with mild-to-moderate glaucoma.