The most effective high eye pressure treatment

High eye pressure, or glaucoma, is the second most common cause of blindness in the world in the elderly over 65 years. It is second after the cataract. This is the most insidious disease and unfortunately, today is often discovered by accident examination in an advanced stage, when the disease is already well advanced and permanent visual impairment has occurred. We distinguish several types of glaucoma: open-angle glaucoma, closed-angle glaucoma, secondary glaucoma and congenital glaucoma. This disease is rather common nowadays. These are the reasons why we decide to write this article about high eye pressure treatment.

 

Diagnostic

In the first part of our article about high eye pressure treatment, we will explain some diagnostic methods for high eye pressure detection. High eye pressure can be detected at an early stage if the patients, after obtaining the first reading glasses, do a regular annual examination by an ophthalmologist. It is necessary to do a complete eye exam that includes visual acuity testing, examination of the anterior and posterior part of the eye, intraocular pressure measurement, and computerized visual field examination. We should also do the measuring of corneal thickness to find out the real value of the measured intraocular pressure for each eye, by using specific correction factors. The scanning of the optic nerve head and nerve fiber layer are desirable. That way we can detect early damages that can show up even five years before the first problems with the visual field. This method is not only important in the early detection of glaucoma, but also in the subsequent monitoring of disease.

High eye pressure treatment – Causes

In the second part of our article about high eye pressure treatment, we will talk about causes for high eye pressure occurrence. The children of affected individuals have an increased risk of developing high eye pressure. High eye pressure occurs in several forms of the disease, and for all of them is characterized optic nerve damage caused by elevated intraocular pressure. If left untreated, damage to the optic nerve resulting in progressive, permanent loss of vision, which begins imperceptible outages insight that gradually progress until complete blindness occurs.

treatment

Finally, we will discuss the high eye pressure treatment. The main goal of treatment is to lower the intraocular pressure and to achieve and maintain the desired pressure. The first step is the conservative treatment with eye drops. If the pressure does not compensate for eye drops, one of the laser treatments should be applied, depending on the type of glaucoma. These laser treatments are performed on an outpatient basis and under local anesthesia, and they do not require hospitalization. Filtering operations are performed under local anesthesia, with an opening made in the chamber angle to facilitate swelling of the aqueous humor from the anterior chamber under the conjunctiva. Less commonly used is the technique of implantation of valves tubes. This method is also known as express mini glaucoma shunt. In any case, early detection and treatment are key for prevention of optic nerve damage and vision loss caused by high eye pressure.