What are the surgery options for glaucoma?
If you think of glaucoma as a problem in which the internal eye fluid cannot escape well causing the pressure to increase, then this will make it easy to understand the laser procedures. Think of a sink, which has a faucet and a drain. If the faucet is pouring too much water into the sink, it overwhelms the drain and the sink fills up, even if the drain is open. On the other hand, if the drain is clogged, then even a normal amount of water coming from the faucet fills the sink. In glaucoma, both problems can exist separately or simultaneously. Some of the treatments slow down the faucet, and some of the treatments help open the drain. In the eye, the faucet is a structure behind the iris (colored part of the eye) called the ciliary body. The drain is in the angle of the eye formed by the connection of the iris to the inner wall of the eye, the trabecular meshwork. Eye drops, laser surgery and glaucoma surgery all work on either the faucet or the drain, or both. James R. Pinke, M.D. off
