Glaucoma Treatment & Care

Glaucoma Surgery

In the United States, glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness, typically affecting older people but appearing across all ages. Glaucoma is caused by increased pressure inside the eyes, which in turn damages the optic nerve.

With more than 1 million nerve fibers, the eye is intricately connected to various parts of the brain, allowing us to see. Glaucoma destroys these fibers. Researchers initially thought that an increase in eye pressure (also called intraocular pressure) was the only cause of this destruction. However, there is much more to this issue than what was first observed. Those researchers noticed that patients with normal eye pressure could also experience significant nerve fiber loss.

More about Glaucoma

In glaucoma patients, the drainage system of the eye, located at the angle between the iris and the cornea, stops working as it should. There’s a fluid in constant motion in the eye, called aqueous humor. In patients with glaucoma, this fluid does not drain as it should and slowly builds up inside the eye.
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There are different types of glaucoma with different causes and different methods of treatment. The most common is known as chronic open-angle glaucoma, also called primary open-angle glaucoma. In these patients, the drainage system is not fully clogged, but the fluid does not drain as fast as it should. Conversely, in closed-angle glaucoma, the drainage system clogs and becomes closed, with absolutely no drainage of fluids at all.