Undergoing a Glaucoma Surgery to Reduce Eye Pressure

High ocular pressure is reduced using medicines to prevent progressing into glaucoma. The most performed surgeries to reduce eye pressure and help protect the vision are laser surgeries. When glaucoma medicines and laser treatment don’t seem to help treat glaucoma, eye doctors may have recourse to surgery. The main goal of the surgery is not to cure glaucoma or undo vision loss, but it is to help protect the vision and stop it from getting worse.

Glaucoma surgery or filtration surgery consists of creating a supplementary drainage system through and under the ocular conjunctiva. The operation is called trabeculectomy and takes up to an hour for the ophthalmologist to perform it. Even though the surgery has a considerable success rate, many patients continue to employ eye drops after surgery. It is reported that 10% of patients may require more than one operation to be able to control eye pressure.

Glaucoma surgery is considered a safe and effective surgery, however, sometimes complications may occur during or after the operation and could become serious occasionally leading to vision loss. A cataract is a complication that some patients experience after glaucoma surgery, however, unlike vision loss to glaucoma, vision is restored after surgically treating the cataract.

Glaucoma surgery is performed under anesthesia and some patients may feel little pain after the effect of anesthesia is gone. In rare cases of acute or severe pain, doctors prescribe painkillers. A soft eye also called a flat anterior chamber is a glaucoma surgery complication due to excessive drainage of aqueous humor from the opening. Excess leakage mostly happens immediately during the post-operative period. In most cases, surgeons solve the problem using contact lenses or other tools at hand in an outpatient setting but also, if unmanageable, surgical intervention could be required.

Most eye surgeons prefer to treat intraocular hypertension using drugs or laser surgery if needed keeping glaucoma surgery as their last resort.