Health And Fitness Tips

     Glaucoma - causes, prevention and treatment methods


1 According to World Health Organization statistics, glaucoma is the second cause of blindness after cataracts. Each year, more than 10 million patients turn to doctors with this diagnosis. In Russia alone, more than a million patients with glaucoma are officially registered, while no less than 500 thousand people are unaware of this ailment.
What is this disease?
Glaucoma is a progressive chronic eye disease that can lead to irreversible loss of vision. This is due to a violation of the natural circulation of the intraocular fluid, which causes an increase in intraocular pressure, as a result of which the retina of the eye suffers and the optic nerve weakens.



Everyone is at risk for glaucoma, from an infant to a senior citizen. Moreover, the causes of its occurrence are not known to specialists for certain. The danger is that most often this disease is asymptomatic and is diagnosed at a late stage when the patient goes to the optometrist with complaints of acute loss of vision.

Blindness begins with the loss of peripheral or lateral vision, which at first the person compensates for by unconscious turns of the head to the side. Thus, the early stages of the disease go unnoticed and attract attention only with a significant loss of human vision.
Prevention and treatment methods
The best way to protect yourself from the effects of glaucoma is to undergo a full examination by an ophthalmologist and, in the case of a positive diagnosis, take the path of maintaining vision. Even though to date, medicine has not found a way to completely cure glaucoma, with the help of medical and surgical treatment it is possible to stop the further progression of the disease and blindness.

To date, to stop the development of glaucoma as first-line therapy, the most effective is the procedure of selective laser trabeculoplasty, which can reduce intraocular pressure by 30%.

As a rule, this method of treatment is the main choice of doctors and patients in the case when the eye drops no longer have the desired effect, as well as in the initial stages of the development of glaucoma.
Selective laser trabeculoplasty, abbreviated as SLT, is a fairly simple non-invasive procedure that is performed on an outpatient basis and is aimed at reducing intraocular pressure.

A laser with such a low level of thermal energy is used for this procedure that it is often called “cold”. This type of laser selectively affects only certain pigment cells of the eye tissue, which is why it is called selective. Its action is so gentle that it not only does not cause dysfunction during the procedure but almost does not leave postoperative scars.

Also, the patient does not even have to take sick leave, as the correction with a “cold laser”, together with all the preparation, takes about 15 minutes.

The mechanism of action of SLT is quite simple.

Immediately before the procedure, anesthetic drops are instilled into the operated eye for the effect of local anesthesia. Then, using a special microscope, the doctor directs a focused light beam, similar to a camera flash, into the area of the eye drainage system. As a result, the thermal effect of the laser leads to chemical and biological changes in the tissues necessary to improve the removal of fluid from the eye, causing an increase in pressure. This procedure is painless and gives the patient a minimum of discomfort.



After only a few days after post-trabeculoplasty, approximately 75% of patients have a significant decrease in intraocular pressure. However, the final result can be seen only after 1-3 months, after which it is recommended that patients continue regular examinations with an ophthalmologist.

One of the main advantages of selective laser trabeculoplasty is the minimum number of side effects and postoperative complications. This makes laser correction safer, even when compared to the usual medication for glaucoma.