Glaucoma Lasers & Surgery

Glaucoma surgery

Surgical procedure to help to reduce eye pressure to prevent or reduce optic nerve demage.

Trabeculectomy/filtering surgery

This is a surgical procedure used in the treatment of glaucoma when the medication or laser surgeries do not lower pressure adequately. In this surgery a tiny drainage hole is made in the sclera (the white of the eye) to relieve intraocular pressure by removing part of the eye’s trabecular meshwork and adjacent structures. The new drainage hole allows fluid to flow out of the eye and helps lower eye pressure. This prevents or reduces damage to the optic nerve.

Laser Peripheral Iridotomy (LPI)

Treatment for narrow angles, narrow angle glaucoma, or acute angle closure glaucoma. When LPI is used in patients with narrow angles, it is considered to be a prophylactic procedure that prevents these patients from developing acute angle closure glaucoma, which they are at higher risk of developing. Acute angle closure glaucoma symptoms are sudden pain in the eye or around the eye with redness and blurred vision.

Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty (SLT)

A type of laser surgery that uses a combination of frequencies allowing the laser to work at very low levels. It treats specific cells “selectively” and leaves untreated portions of the trabecular meshwork (the mesh-like drainage canals surrounding the iris) intact. For this reason, it is believed that SLT, unlike other types of laser surgery, may be safely repeated many times. SLT may also be an alternative for those who have been treated unsuccessfully with traditional laser surgery or with pressure lowering eye drops.