Glaucoma Surgery In Johannesburg

What Is Glaucoma?

Glaucoma is a condition in which the pressure of fluid inside the eye, also known as the intraocular pressure, increases and threatens a patient’s vision. If the condition is not corrected, the pressure can become high enough to damage the optic nerve and possibly lead to total blindness.

Do I Have Glaucoma?

If you think you might be suffering from glaucoma, the main symptom to look out for is loss of vision. Fortunately, glaucoma can be detected with a general eye examination by our doctors, prior to any irreversible damage. This is another reason why annual eye exams are essential to maintaining good eye health and vision. Risk factors for glaucoma can include but are not limited to a family history of the condition, chronic high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, use of corticosteroids, and previous eye trauma.

How Can I Treat Glaucoma?

The most common treatment for glaucoma is medicated eye drops, which lower the patient’s eye pressure to a healthy level. These drops may include:

• Prostaglandins – increases the outflow of fluid in the patient’s eye
• Beta Blockers – reduces how much fluid the eye produces
• Alpha-adrenergic agnoists – reduces the production of aqueous humor and increase fluid outflow
• Miotic/cholinergic agents – increases the eye’s outflow of fluid

A combination of these medications might also be used as an effective treatment.

For moderate to severe glaucoma, oral medications may be prescribed to bring down the intraocular pressure of the eye. If eye drops and oral medications are unsuccessful, laser eye surgery or other types of conventional surgery may be necessary.

Glaucoma Surgery

Our Practice uses the ExPRESS glaucoma implant by Alcon Laboratories in order to lower the intraocular pressure if medication is unable to achieve satisfactory intraocular pressure control. The ExPRESS implant is less invasive and has been clinically proven to be superior to conventional glaucoma surgery.

Glaucoma & LASIK Surgery

Glaucoma does not completely prevent someone from receiving refractive surgery for vision correction, but the condition should be treated and corrected before the surgery takes place. It does create more risk for laser eye surgeries such as LASIK or wavefront LASIK, but patients who have a somewhat high intraocular pressure can consider types of PRK or LASEK procedures as a possibility.

Schedule A Consultation For Glaucoma Treatment

Patients who want to learn more about our eye surgery procedures can schedule a consultation today with our doctors.