Glaucoma Laser Surgery Procedure

Glaucoma laser surgery is usually done at a doctor s office or outpatient surgery clinic.

Glaucoma laser surgery procedure. Selective laser trabeculoplasty or slt is a form of laser surgery that is used to lower intraocular pressure in glaucoma. The cost for an uninsured individual or with an insurance co pay will vary. Safer procedures on the horizon. Migs minimally invasive glaucoma surgery are a group of newer procedures that are usually combined with cataract surgery to lower eye pressure to the mid teens range.

In yag cp laser surgery a local anesthetic is used to numb the eye. Argon laser trabeculoplasty alt. You may be sensitive to light and have slightly blurred vision as your eyes. Though the reduction in eye pressure from slt may not be permanent the procedure can often be safely repeated if needed.

This causes the fluid in the eye to build up increasing iop and damaging the optic nerve. Your doctor may treat half of the clogs first see how. Doctors often recommend laser surgery before incisional surgery unless the eye pressure is very high or the optic nerve is badly damaged. One or both eyes may be done.

Here are some types of laser surgery for glaucoma. Laser treatment or trabeculoplasty is a simple procedure to treat glaucoma that your eye doctor can do in the office. Your eyes may feel itchy or gritty and swollen but these feelings should go away in 1 or 2 days. To help lower your eye pressure he or she will also put a tiny plastic tube called a shunt under the thin clear membrane covering the white of your eye.

Glaucoma laser surgeries help to lower the intraocular pressure iop in the eye. Long term benefits of glaucoma laser surgery. During laser surgery a focused beam of light is used to treat the eye s trabecular meshwork the eye s drainage system. Find out whether you need laser treatment how it works and what happens afterward.

However for some glaucoma surgeries it is better to perform the glaucoma surgery alone and address the cataract later in a second operation. According to the glaucoma research foundation this laser glaucoma surgery can lower eye pressure by 20 to 30 percent and is successful in about 80 of patients. Cataract surgery and glaucoma shunt procedures during this surgery your ophthalmologist will remove your eye s cloudy lens and replace it with an artificial one. Laser iridotomy and laser iridoplasty are used to treat angle closure glaucoma or narrow angles.

Once the eye has been numbed there should be little or no pain and discomfort. You should be able to see right after the surgery. This is where the iris the coloured bit of the eye is pushed forward blocking off the natural drainage pathway for the fluid in the eye. This opens clogs in your eye so fluid can drain out.