Glaucoma-Treatment Strategies

Glaucoma is a disease which is caused by the development of the excessive pressure in the eye which may lead to the visual loss and cannot be retrieved again. The core purpose of the glaucoma treatment is to reduce the intraocular pressure (IOP) and slow the process of loss of vision.  It is intrinsic to understand that the pressure inside the eye increases due to the increment of amount of fluid inside the eye.  Therefore, the treatment of Glaucoma targets to reduce the amount of fluid being formed and if that is not being alleviated by medicines, treatment procedures such as laser treatment and conventional surgery are used.

Loss of vision in the eye due to high pressure  causing optic nerve damage

The treatment of glaucoma begins with application of medications such as ophthalmic solutions such as eye drops which includes the following classes of drugs:

Prostaglandins: It is sometimes considered as the first-line therapy for glaucoma. It usually works by relaxing the muscles of the eyes and draining of the fluids which enables the pressure to be reduced. The latanoprost,bimatoprost, tafluprost, travoprost are some of the common prostaglandin analogues used in the treatment of glaucoma.

Beta blockers: It helps reduction of intraocular pressure (IOP) by enervated production of fluids in the eye. Examples include timolol, levobunolol, carteolol, metipranolol and betaxolol. Sometimes, these are used in combinations of drugs in order to attain effective treatment outcome.

Alpha-adrenergic agonists: It also plays role in the reduction of ocular fluids and prevents further production of it, thereby, reducing the overall ocular pressure.Examples include apraclonidine, dipivefrin and brimonidine. It can also be used after the laser trabeculoplasty (described below) is conducted.

Cholinergic agents:  The  drug such as pilocarpine is used in the treatment of glaucoma.

Carbonic anhydrase inhibitors: The medications such as carbonic anhydrase inhibitors are mainly responsible for reduction of fluids in the ocular cavity. It also plays certain role of excretion of water from the body leading to more frequent urination. The drugs such as dorzolamide and brinzolamide are used in the treatment of Glaucoma.

Combination glaucoma drugs: The drugs are combined with one another and used in the liquid dosage form to increase compliance and to obtain highest patient outcome amongst patients.

If the medications are not sufficient to reduce the adverse condition of the patient, the other strategies of treatments are adopted. Such strategies are more complex and demands technical expertise in order to treat the ailment. They are given as follows:

Laser treatment/Trabeculoplasty: It is a laser treatment where the eye is exposed to the laser beam which causes some burns in the eyes tissues as a result of which the excessive fluid in the eye is exudates causing reduction in the eye pressure. It is a very complex process which includes expert diagnosis and study of the physiological a deviation to upshot the required consequences.

Laser Trabeculoplasty

Conventional surgical procedures/ Trabeculectomy: The conventional surgical procedure is an alternate form of treatment in circumstances where medications are effective in upbringing of the desirable result. The surgical operations are carried out such that drainage of the ocular fluid is initiated by the removal of certain tissues in the eye wall.

Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness in the world at present. The sooner, the problem is diagnosed, the better the ailment can be treated and therefore, the active consultancy to an expert ophthalmologist is always preferable.