Glaucoma and Trabeculoplasty

Glaucoma is not just one eye disease, but a group of eye conditions resulting in optic nerve damage, which causes loss of vision. Abnormally high pressure inside your eye (intraocular pressure) is in most cases the cause of this damage.

Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness and can damage your vision so gradually you may not notice any loss of vision until the disease is at an advanced stage. The most common type of glaucoma, primary open-angle glaucoma, has no noticeable signs or symptoms except gradual vision loss.

Early diagnosis and treatment can minimize or prevent optic nerve damage and limit glaucoma-related vision loss. It’s important to get your eyes examined regularly, and make sure your eye doctor measures your intraocular pressure.

Laser trabeculoplasty uses a very focused beam of light to treat the drainage angle of the eye. This surgery makes it easier for fluid to flow out of the front part of the eye, decreasing pressure in the eye. There are two types of laser trabeculoplasty: Argon laser trabeculoplasty (ALT) uses a laser to open up the drainage angle of the eye. Selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) uses a lower-level laser to open the drainage angle of the eye.

For laser trabeculoplasty eye drops are put in the person’s eye before or after the procedure to decrease the amount of fluid in the eyes and prevent elevation in eye pressure immediately after laser treatment. A special microscope (slit lamp) and lens (goniolens) are then used to guide the laser beam to the canals (trabecular meshwork) where fluid drains from the eye. The doctor makes small burns in the trabecular meshwork. Some people feel a heat sensation in the eye during the laser surgery.

L. Jay Katz, MD, provided an update on the forthcoming randomized clinical trial comparing selective laser trabeculoplasty with topical medical therapy using prostaglandin analogues as initial monotherapy for glaucoma. According to Dr. Katz, he and his fellow researchers found the two treatment options to be similarly efficacious out to 1 year.

Glaucoma can affect any age group including newborns, infants, children and the elderly. According to statistics provided by the Glaucoma Research Foundation, over four million people in the US suffer from glaucoma, of which only 50{0730eed075b45d9e50c00d6cd42dd08773e0164f29a45151808bf89051290974} are aware of their condition. Glaucoma presents a greater public health concern than cataracts because the blindness caused by glaucoma is irreversible. Thus, early detection through comprehensive eye examinations is the key to protect against glaucoma damage.

At Laser Locators we carry the top name surgical and diagnostic ophthalmic equipment manufacturers you can trust, like Acon, Nidek, Lumenis and more for preforming all of your precise ophthalmic procedures. Contact us at www.laserlocators.com  or call 1-877-924-2020 and let one of our expert equipment locators help you today.