Treatments for Glaucoma
The management of glaucoma depends on the type, the underlying
cause, and the severity of the disease. Treatment may involve
medications, in the form of eye drops or oral drugs, laser
procedures, or surgery.
Glaucoma cannot be cured. The focus and goal of treatment is
to control the disease and prevent or slow any further visual damage from
occurring.
An important recent advance in the treatment of glaucoma
is the release of results from The Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study.
Published in the June 2002 issue of the Archives of
Ophthalmology, this study showed that using glaucoma eye
drops was effective in delaying or preventing the onset of
primary open-angle glaucoma in patients with increased
intraocular pressure (IOP). Another important study, entitled
"Reduction of intraocular pressure and glaucoma progression:
results from the Early Manifest Glaucoma Trial," was published
in the October 2002 issue of the Archives of
Ophthalmology. This study concluded that progression of
glaucoma occurs less frequently and usually at a later time in
patients treated with glaucoma drops than in patients who do
not receive treatment. However, some people in the study who
did not receive any treatment did not progress either.
It should be noted that in some cases, the physician
and patient may decide not to treat glaucoma at all. The reason for this is that
treatments for glaucoma are often expensive and associated
with many side effects. Glaucoma is generally a slowly
progressive disease. For some patients diagnosed with
glaucoma, there is little chance that the disease will
progress significantly enough to cause noticeable problems
within the patient's lifetime. These patients, with the
guidance of their physicians, may decide that the side effects
of treatment are not worth the risk compared to the small
chance that they will ever develop problems from glaucoma
without treatment. Therefore, the treatment for glaucoma is
determined on an individual basis.
Treatment involves the following:
SOURCES:
American Academy of Ophthalmology
National Eye Institute
Last reviewed September 2003 by Marc Ellman, MD
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