The anatomy of the eye has some unusual features. An eye is not solid. Once past the iris (the colored ring) and pupil (the dark circle) to the inner regions, a person would swim in a fluid.
Called aqueous humor, it makes one smile since typically when entering into a body, one encounters blood instead of water. Much like a swimming pool, the fluid circulates until the drainage system (a meshwork of flesh canals) takes it outside the pupil and into other body channels.
When circulation is normal, the eye maintains a range of intraocular pressure known as IOP that maximizes its functioning for sight. In some people, the fluid enters faster than it can drain or the meshwork flesh canals clog or scar.
It creates pressure in the eye, making it puff up. Most of the eye can handle such a situation except for the optic nerve part. The optic nerve relays all the information of the cells to the brain.
It is sensitive to pressure. Ending in a disc in the retina, any pressure on the optic disc damages it. It notifies the brain by causing vision loss in the sight that the brain must provide balance if it wants vision.
Other factors do come into play for a person to develop a high-pressure eyeball, but it signals at risk for serious eye disease. The condition became known as glaucoma.
Eventually, if left untreated, glaucoma will cause blindness. One of the solutions that exist became called SLT Glaucoma Laser 1.
Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty
Since 1995 this laser eye surgery has helped glaucoma patients maintain their sight. It has a track record of an 80 percent success rate in patients. In an in-office procedure, its goal remains to lower the intraocular pressure causing the damage to the optic nerve disc.
Using a special contact lens, the energy of the laser becomes applied to drainage tissue. The light creates a biological chemical change in that tissue, which ups the level of drainage. From numerous operations, doctors now know SLT can lower the pressure inside the eye by 20 to 30 percent. A patient can expect the treatment to last at least 3 to 5 years. Fortunately, STL can be repeated.
Eyedrops
Before the discovery of SLT, patients were given eye drops. Which is a common prescription in the early stages of glaucoma. The eye drops contain medication for draining the fluid from the eye by chemical means.
Drugs such as beta-blockers, alpha agonists, prostaglandin analogs, rho kinase inhibitors, or a combination of drugs treat glaucoma. Issues of forgetting to use the medication and their expensiveness kept patients from experiencing optimum eye health. The medicines in the eyedrops have side effects.
A better way
SLT laser eye surgery proved to be less risky than the continual use of eye drops. Complications are rare.
If a patient has an inflammation or pressure spike, then eyedrops supplement the SLT surgery. Each patient’s glaucoma is as unique as the patient is. It allows doctors to tailor treatment to their needs.
Conclusion
The most crucial factor in eye surgery remains the expertise of the doctor. Houston Lasik Clinic has award-winning expertise as a group and as an individual ophthalmologist. If glaucoma is your issue, give the clinic a call and get a customizable treatment plan.
https://www.glaucoma.org/gleams/glaucoma-medications-and-their-side-effects.php
https://www.glaucoma.org/treatment/selective-laser-trabeculoplasty-as-primary-glaucoma-therapy.php
https://www.aao.org/eye-health/diseases/what-is-glaucoma
https://www.glaucoma.org/glaucoma/glaucoma-facts-and-stats.php
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10792-015-0079-1
https://www.glaucoma.org/treatment/selective-laser-trabeculoplasty-as-primary-glaucoma-therapy.php
