Posts Tagged ‘angle glaucoma’

Surgery Is An Efficient Way To Treat Glaucoma

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

angle glaucoma

If you are serious about keeping your vision and maintaining your eye health, then you will want to make sure that you have regular exams. Screening for glaucoma is a quick and easy test, yet many people do not get it done. It is a serious tragedy that so many people are going blind because of a disease that can be treated by medication or surgery.

Glaucoma is a term that doctors have given to four eye diseases. What the four types of glaucoma have in common is how they destroy vision. Glaucoma occurs when the optic nerve becomes destroyed due to pressure or lack of blood supply. Doctors are not sure exactly why this happens in some people and not in others. The people at highest risk of glaucoma are black people, people over 40, and anyone with a history of the disease in their family. Doctors will first try to treat glaucoma with medications, but if this doesn’t work then a surgical procedure is the last option. There are two types of operations that can be performed to treat glaucoma; traditional and laser.

There are two types of surgeries that can be performed on glaucoma patients; one is traditional and the other is laser surgery. A laser trabeculoplasty procedure is used to treat open-angle glaucoma by making holes in the drainage channels in the eyes. Trabeculectomy is a traditional operation in which a surgeon cuts a tiny hole into the sclera, or white part of the eye, in order to help drainage. Drain implantation seems pretty obvious by the name, and involves placing a drainage tube within the eye. The last type of procedure is called cyclophotocoagulation and it involves the use of a laser on the surface of the affected eye. The laser targets the part of the eye that produces fluid in the hope of disrupting the process. This operation is the riskiest and can cause loss of eyesight.

Glaucoma surgery is done as a last resort when all other treatments have failed to work. Any type of operation carries risks, but not having an operation that you need to repair glaucoma damage is even riskier to your eye health. Glaucoma can be treated if it is found early enough, and vision can be saved.

No One Wants To Contract Eye diseases

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

eye infections

Eye diseases are a topic that can be found in health news just about every day. Nobody wants to have trouble with their eyesight but it happens to people all the time. You can try to keep your overall health in tiptop shape but sometimes it doesn’t matter what you do, you still get sick.

There’s so many diseases that can affect the eyes that it is hard to keep track of them all. Luckily, there are trained professionals, such as eye doctors, who are specialized in this area. Sometimes eye problems can happen due to eyestrain or a person not taking care of their eyes correctly, yet there are others who are genetically predisposed. Open angle glaucoma and angle closure glaucoma, cataracts, dry eye, pink eye and eye infections are some of the many things that can affect just about anyone. Some diseases are curable and some are not. There are some that can be stopped in their tracks and stopped from advancing, and there are some diseases that can be reversed totally. If you are having any type of eye trouble, then you need to have an eye exam and determine what your specific condition is. Once determined by an eye specialist, you will gain the knowledge of how to take care of whatever eye health issue you have.

Glaucoma and cataracts are two very serious types of eye diseases. These are the two main diseases that come to mind for most people when they think about diseases having to do with the eyes. While not every eye disease that you can contract is serious and can cause blindness, some can be very annoying and irritating. The good news is that with regular eye exams and taking care of your health, any disease or infection can usually be eradicated totally in a short matter of time. There are some eye problems that cannot be taken care of quickly or easily, and early detection is the key to having the best results. If you’re going to need to have any type of surgery on your eyes, then you’ll want to know that as early as possible, so the surgery can be successful.

No one ever wants to get sick, and especially no one ever wants to contract any eye diseases. However, it can happen to any of us. Make sure that you get regular exams, both for your body and for your eyes. Medical advances are such these days that if any problem is detected early, then a doctor should be able to correct it.