Can Glaucoma Surgery Cause Vision Loss?
Glaucoma surgery helps lower eye pressure by improving fluid drainage, but it could worsen your vision if something goes wrong. Although sudden visual loss after glaucoma surgery may be rare, any sudden change should be reported immediately, as this could indicate that the surgery wasn’t successful and that another procedure will likely be needed to correct your vision issues. The short answer to whether glaucoma surgery causes vision loss is “NO!”.
What is Glaucoma?
Glaucoma surgery technique is an eye disease that damages the optic nerve. It is most frequently caused by increased pressure in the eye, but other potential sources include problems with blood flow or injury to the eyes. While particular forms of glaucoma cause symptoms like headache and eye pain, others do not present with any.
Who Is Diagnosed with Glaucoma Filtration Surgery?
People with open-angle glaucoma develop blind spots in their peripheral vision over time. The optic nerve gets damaged without warning, often without notice, until most optic nerve fibers die and vision disappears entirely.
Primary open-angle glaucoma is the most frequently diagnosed form of glaucoma. In this form, eye pressure gradually rises because the eye cannot drain fluid as efficiently. Diagnosing this form is typically done through eye exams, including testing your pressure with a tonometer, viewing inside your eye through a lens (gonioscopy), and measuring corneal thickness with special devices.
Some individuals are at higher risk for glaucoma than others. People over the age of 40, those with family histories of glaucoma, and Americans tend to have higher risks. It can also develop as an adverse reaction to certain medications taken for other medical issues or from eye injuries or infections that have not resolved themselves adequately.
What Happens During the Surgery?
Before resorting to surgery, doctors may first try using medicines to treat glaucoma. Such remedies may reduce eye pressure by decreasing fluid production or helping it drain out more effectively from your eye. Surgery may then create new drainage channels for eye fluid drainage or remove tissues that block them from moving freely through them.
How Does Glaucoma Cause Vision Loss?
Glaucoma is caused by an accumulation of pressure within the eye, typically over years, and its effects do not become evident immediately. Regular dilated eye exams are essential in monitoring this disease early since vision loss from glaucoma cannot be reversed, and medication or surgery may help slow further damage.
The back of your eye continuously produces a clear fluid called aqueous humor, which fills and drains through channels in the cornea and iris. Intraocular pressure (IOP) increases if the flow is interrupted and can damage the optic nerve.
Open-angle glaucoma is one of the most prevalent types of glaucoma, typically developing over time without pain to go unnoticed until damage appears as blind spots in your vision.
What Can Glaucoma Surgery Do?
Glaucoma affects eye fluid flow, potentially damaging the optic nerve. Although various treatments for glaucoma are available, surgery remains the final resort to prevent or slow severe vision loss. Surgery lowers eye pressure to stop or slow vision loss.
What are the Types of Glaucoma Surgery?
Doctors use various types of advanced glaucoma surgery depending on the nature and severity of your glaucoma condition. Your physician will recommend one that’s most suitable to you.
If your glaucoma is caused by narrow-angle open-angle glaucoma, your eye doctor may go for Laser surgery for its many benefits. This procedure creates a small hole in your iris using lasers to allow fluid to travel more freely through the eye and lower eye pressure.
Treatment for glaucoma can now be conducted outpatient, meaning no hospital or surgery center visits are required and under local anesthesia. Your doctor can also perform Minimally Invasive Glaucoma Surgery (MIGS), which uses less invasive procedures that involve smaller cuts than traditional glaucoma surgeries.
These procedures may help restore some of the vision lost due to glaucoma; however, they won’t reverse any permanent vision loss. Therefore, regular exams for glaucoma must be scheduled with your physician as part of treatment recommendations; those at high risk may require more frequent checks of eye pressure monitoring by their provider.
What Are the Risks of Glaucoma Surgery?
Glaucoma surgery is generally a safe and effective procedure that can restore some vision loss from past loss. It won’t regain everything; instead, it can stop further loss and help prevent blindness from developing. Most glaucoma patients see improvement within days to weeks after surgery.
Following eye surgery, you must attend regular follow-up appointments so your physician can check to ensure your eyes are healing correctly and the treatment is working as intended. Attendance at these visits allows the physician to quickly detect any potential problems with your vision and treat them immediately.
After surgery for glaucoma, your eye may become dry, reddened, sore, or watery, and you might notice a bump at the incision site. You may also feel a slightly blurry vision until the swelling subsides, and you can wear contact lenses again. However, medications for your condition must still be taken, and regular exams should be scheduled so an eye surgeon can monitor your eye pressure.
Sometimes, medications alone won’t be enough to reduce eye pressure, prompting more surgery to help. There are various forms of glaucoma surgery; most involve making minor cuts in your eye so fluid can flow and relieve pressure in your eye while implanting devices to replace its natural drainage system.
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Conclusion
Glaucoma surgery is generally safe and effective but carries some risks. It primarily aims to lower intraocular pressure and prevent further damage to the optic nerve, thus preserving the remaining vision. While surgery cannot reverse existing vision loss, it can significantly slow glaucoma progression and help maintain the patient’s quality of life.
Call Bagan Strinden Vision For Glaucoma Surgery
Experience top-quality eye care with Bagan Strinden Vision! From glaucoma treatment and general eye care to eyelid procedures, laser eye surgery, and cataract surgery, we are dedicated to preserving and enhancing your vision. Contact us today to schedule your consultation and see the world more clearly!
