Ive been told i have a little bit off glaucoma o the eye`s can anyone please explain what this is Glaucoma is not a build up of fluid behind or in the eye.
Glaucoma is damage to the optic nerve and retrograde damage to the retinal ganglion cells, somehow related to pressure.
If the pressure within the eyeball is too high, the anatomy of the nerve head and wall of the eye is such that those nerve fibers get 'crushed' against the wall, this damages the nerves, and the nerve atrophies.
The eyeball makes a little bit of fluid to keep itself having the form of an eyeball. It has a certain pressure. It does leak, so it replaces that fluid. If it replaces the fluid faster than the drain, the pressure goes up a little. Then the fluid is forced out of the drain at the same rate it's produced. If that pressure it "too high" for the nerve, the nerve becomes damaged.
the types of glaucoma depends on the reason the drain is stopped up or why the fluid is being overproduced. If blood blocks the drain...hemorrhagic glaucoma. If the pigment blocks the drain, pigmentary glaucoma. If there's trauma to the eye and later the drain sort of slows, traumatic glaucoma. If the lens capsule exfoliates, sort of like paint peeling off the house, exfoliation glaucoma. If one has leukemia and the cells accumulate in the eye, leukemic glaucoma. If the angle between the iris and the cornea is narrow and that causes a block of the drain, narrow angle glaucoma. If they can't figure out what the reason is and the angle is open....chronic open angle glaucoma or COAG.
Whatever the cause, the Rx is to increase the drain or slow down the production of fluid. Drops do these things. Some drops do both.
Laser trabeculoplasty does help, but there are newer ways to treat this that are a LOT more efficient, but require a bit of surgery. These newer techniques open the drain from within with a small suture and it just works! No more drops. No drains, no implants, no laser, no pills...
I'd not have the laser for glaucoma if it were for my eye, and I've done LOTS of those but don't anymore. Talk to your doctor about some of the newer procedures. The laser is a destructive type of treatment that only works for about 3 years, then needs to be redone, then again, then...surgery.
If you have more questions, let me know. Will try and walk you through it. It is where pressure builds up in the eye. Basically, it is like a sort of build up of fluid and the fluid needs to escape. If it can't then laser surgery can cure this. It is a painless operation which creates a way for the fluid to escape. Have a look at this site, it explains it fairly simply. Most people do not have to have an operation, the condition is controlled by drops.
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/pub... GLAUCOMA is a build up of fluid behind the eye-ball
this is treated with Lazar surgery which is a beam of inferred which goes through the eye-ball and reduces pressure.
sounds frightening but its painless and quite a simple procedure. |
