Glaucoma Surgery Can Help Save Your Sight
Glaucoma is an eye disease that is caused by too much pressure in your eye. The fluid in your eye builds up, damages it, and will eventually take your sight. There are various treatments that you can use to slow the glaucoma down and keep your sight, including surgery.
Glaucoma Surgery
Most glaucoma surgery is done by lasers these days. The lasers allow your eye doctor to be more precise while they are treating your eye and using lasers can make your recovery time shorter, since there is far less trauma to the eye than other types of surgery can cause. The reason behind the surgery is to get your eyes to drain better. There are different ways that the surgeon can make this happen. One way is for them to enlarge the natural drains in your eye. That will allow the fluid in your eye to drain, release the extra pressure, and make the drain work better. Another option is for the surgeon to make very tiny holes in the iris of your eye. That will allow the fluid in your eyes to drain and the pressure to normalize. Since they are both laser surgeries, they are generally pretty quick. They are done as outpatient surgeries, which means that you can go home after they are done.
Recovery
Generally, your eyes are going to be red and somewhat irritated right after the surgery, just because the laser surgery is less traumatic to your eye doesn't mean that it isn't traumatic to your eye. That redness and irritation generally don't last more than a day. You will likely have blurry vision for a few days after the surgery as the fluid pressure normalizes and becomes more controlled. That process does affect your vision. Once that has happened, then your vision will likely clear up and stop being blurry. Generally, you can get back to your normal activities with a few days, but your doctor may request that you avoid heavy lifting and strenuous activities for a couple of weeks to just let your eyes recover better. You will also need to go in for several post-op exams. That will allow the doctor to measure the eye fluid pressure and make sure it's normalizing.
If you have glaucoma, it's important that you treat it so that it doesn't get worse. Laser surgery is one way to treat it and save your sight. Contact a clinic, like Dixie Ophthalmic Specialists at Zion Eye Institute, for more help.
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