Glaucoma
What is Glaucoma?
Glaucoma is a disease that damages your eye’s optic nerve. It usually happens when fluid builds up in the front part of your eye. That extra fluid increases the pressure in your eye, damaging the optic nerve. Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness for people over 60 years old. But blindness from glaucoma can often be prevented with early treatment.
Main Cause of Glaucoma
Your eye constantly makes aqueous humor. As new aqueous flows into your eye, the same amount should drain out through an area called the drainage angle. This process keeps pressure in the eye (called intraocular pressure or IOP) stable. But if the drainage angle is not working properly, fluid builds up. Pressure inside the eye rises, damaging the optic nerve.
The optic nerve is made of more than a million tiny nerve fibers. As these nerve fibers die, you will develop blind spots in your vision. You may not notice these blind spots until most of your optic nerve fibers have died. If all of the fibers die, you will become blind.
Diagnosis and Treatment
Unfortunately, glaucoma has no symptoms in its early stages. Patients cannot feel elevated eye pressure and, initially, it is the peripheral or side vision that is lost first in glaucoma. The central or straight-ahead vision may remain normal even in advanced glaucoma. Therefore, it is important to have periodic complete eye examinations so that glaucoma can be diagnosed early. A glaucoma screening that only checks eye pressure is not enough to catch it. During a glaucoma exam, your ophthalmologist will:
- measure your eye pressure
- inspect your eye’s drainage angle
- examine your optic nerve for damage
- test your peripheral (side) vision
- take a picture or computer measurement of your optic nerve
- measure the thickness of your cornea
In most cases, glaucoma can be treated with drops or laser treatment. In more difficult cases, surgical options are available.
Microinvasive Glaucoma Surgery (MIGS)
Dr. Bannan is the first and only surgeon performing locally Microinvasive Glaucoma Surgery (MIGS). The I-Stent device is the smallest device implanted in the human body. This device is approved by the FDA for use in glaucoma patients who are undergoing cataract surgery. It only takes an additional two minutes or so during your cataract surgery to implant the I-Stent.
The cost of this device is borne by Medicare and most major health insurances. In many cases, implantation of the I-Stent will result in significant decrease in intra-ocular pressure ( IOP.) In some cases, the I-Stent will result in enough pressure lowering so that glaucoma drops can be reduced or even eliminated.
For more information, please visit www.livingwithglaucoma.com