What are the treatments for open angle glaucoma? In this video I review the different eye drops for glaucoma and glaucoma surgery. Check out the Playlist
Treatment well in this video i get to review the different eye drops for glaucoma and glaucoma surgery. so let’s take a look joe allen here from doctor eye health bringing the best in education about the eyes vision and vision product also at any point throughout the video check out the show notes and links below for further information about everything that we go over also,
Keep in mind this video is part of a complete video series about glaucoma but don’t miss out on all the other good videos about glaucoma and i’ll hook you up with a link to that in the description below as well as in the youtube card up above otherwise, let’s go over open-angle glaucoma treatments now when it comes to glaucoma treatment, there are many different treatments
Out there concept across the board for all those treatments is the same we treat glaucoma by lowering the pressure of the eye and we can do that with medicated eyedrops. we can do that with laser surgeries we can even do that with more intense surgeries in the operating room where we physically make an increased drainage canal or we can do implants to again increase the
Drainage of the eye or we can use a combination so overall the treatment outlook for glaucoma is usually very good now if you are diagnosed with open-angle glaucoma here in the united states and you’re gonna be started on treatment you usually analog these eyedrops come with a little kind of bluegreen almost a teal colored cap now i don’t have any affiliation with brands or
Anything. one of the more common ones is called xalatan the generic form is called latanoprost now. these drops are excellent the reason they’re prescribed usually first-line is because one they’re pretty cheap the generic form has been out since i think like the mid 90s and over all that are pretty cheap for people to take also they’re incredibly effective so just using
This drop one time at night every day in both eyes will lower the pressure of the eyes that’s an excellent decrease in eye pressure. and so for again that the kind of the cost benefit of taking this medication and significant drop in eye pressure it makes this really the first line for first line treatment for glaucoma now used so commonly there are some side-effects. i
Wanted to kind of mention so if you’re taking this medication already, you could notice that these drops make the eyes a little bit red or a hyperemic that’s what we call it in the in the clinic. but usually you’re using this drop right before bedtime so you’re going to bed anyway, so it’s not really that huge of a deal some people will notice their eyelashes grow a lot
Longer thicker and fuller actually a lot of our lady patients who are put on this medication they don’t really mind too much because it’s basically like getting a prescription for latisse the medication that can actually grow your eyelashes longer. in fact, they’re the same classification of medication. they’re both prostaglandin analogues beyond just that this medication is
Known for helping change the eye color now no one really prescribes this for this reason, but as a side effect people with lighter colored eyes if i was to start taking this medication and i took it for a long time a couple eight years then the pigment of my eye you could actually maybe notice it start to get darker and eventually, some people even can do that kind of light
Brown eyes from taking this medication one of the more lesser common known side effects of a prostaglandin analog is it changes the fat deposition. so usually we don’t prescribe a prostaglandin analog in just one eye by themselves occasionally if somebody is using it in just one eye and not the other that one i could start to look like it’s sunken back deeper inside the
Skull and that’s this because the fat around the eye is just not kind of depositing normally as it would be in the eye that’s not taking that medication now beyond just using a prostaglandin analog if your doctor feels that that medication either isn’t right for you maybe you need your eye pressure lowered even more they’ll consider adding another medication now it’s always
Up to your doctor which medication they choose for you next and which one’s the best for you based on your health and make a shion’s you’re taking but often times here in the united states probably the second most commonly prescribed i drop for glaucoma. it fits into a classification called beta blockers one of the most famous names is called timolol. there’s a couple of
Different concentrations of timolol. there’s either timolol eyedrops there’s tomorrow gel drops. they’re a little bit thicker usually these drops come in a cat come in the bottle with a yellow cap and these drops are usually prescribed at least once a day i’ve seen a prescribed twice a day, but usually at least once a day and in the mornings these medications do lower the
Eye pressure by about 25% and they do that by decreasing the formation of the fluid inside the eye prostaglandins actually help decrease the fluid by help actually getting the fluid to drain out of the eye better so again prostoglandins help drain the fluid out of the eye and then tim will or beta-blockers will help decrease the formation of fluid inside the eye and so if
You actually push the doctor was to prescribe these both together it’s a very powerful effect. now, of course with latanoprost, you know, we have to watch about some of those complications those contraindications or side effects with timolol the few side effects that can occur usually your doctor has to kind of screen to make sure you’re not known of a history of asthma or
A breathing issues like with copd and there’s other type of medications that could interact so again, those are things your doctor will consider now beyond using either latanoprost again the teal green cap or you got timolol the beta blocker that comes with a yellow cap. then there’s other medications one that comes in an orange cap is called a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor
Or ca is and that’s either gonna be called a brinzolamide or dorzolamide now these medications they actually do lower the eye pressure by decreasing the formation of the fluid just like timolol but on their own they only decrease the eye pressure just a little bit. so usually these ones are used in and that actually helps amplify the amount of decreased eye pressure by
Up to about 15 percent now again these medications if they’re prescribed alone usually are three times a day but oftentimes they prescribe just twice a day because using it in combination with the other eyedrops then there’s a medication that comes in a purple cap, and that one’s called an alpha now bromonidine this alpha agonist not only decreases the formation of fluid
Inside the eye but it also increases the outflow of the fluid inside the eye. so this medication again works pretty well oftentimes it is used as an adjunct to either latanoprost or perhaps timolol classifications of the different medications the different eye drops for glaucoma now beyond just these drops that we’ve mentioned again there are combo drops out there. these
Are medications that are kind of like having the shampoo and conditioner combos that you have in the shower, these medications are basically the mix of the other ones we mentioned just put together like that to make it more convenient rather than having like five or six bottles that you got a dump in your eye throughout the day. it just makes it more convenient things like
That. there is another medication that just came out maybe about a year ago. i think it finally got fda approved in 2017 and that one’s called ropressa. that’s the brand name i have no association with that brand but that medication actually helps again drain the fluid out of the eye through the trabecular meshwork, that’s one and again that ways that the fluid actually
Drains out of the eye being that this medication is newer. it is a bit more expensive it is kind of making its run for its money because it actually has such a good effect at lowering the eye pressure i think it’s also pretty close to that of a prostaglandin analogue now again, it’s just a newer medication. we want to kind of throw it out there but it could be on the rise
As a future big name for glaucoma treatment now i also want to mention that if you are taking any of these eye drops it is very likely that a lot of people will start off taking these medications and it because glaucoma has no symptoms people will start taking it and then they’ll just stop taking their eye drops or it’s easy for them to forget but it’s really important
That if you’re taking these drops for any reason for glaucoma you try not to forget don’t stop doing it. unless your doctor told you to stop taking them there’s no way for us to back the train up and get vision back from this damage so really taking these eye drops is the only way for your eye doctor to control the pressure and prevent or delay for their vision loss and if
You’re somebody who’s taking any of these eye drops and you’re having difficulty getting the drops in i did make another video on how to put eye drops in on your own and i’ll hook that up here in the youtube card up above as well as in the description below now beyond taking those medications there are a couple other treatments and that involves different types of glaucoma
Surgery, the two major forms a surgery that we’re gonna cover today is laser trabeculoplasty and then we’re gonna roughly review some of the different implants and the different kind of more invasive procedures that can be used for glaucoma now this actually it i actually really like laser trabeculoplasty because this is a way for us to pay much get rid of some of the eye
Drops if somebody doesn’t want to take them mirror contact lens on the eye while the patient sits behind a small laser device we have in the clinic and then the doctor will activate this laser and they’ll actually burn in burn little drainage canals into the already existing drainage canal of the eye so they basically widen the drainage canal to increase the outflow now
This procedure isn’t ideal for everybody with open-angle glaucoma some type of pigment in the drainage canal of your eye for this to work if you don’t have any pigment then you are not an ideal candidate for this procedure we can lower the eye pressure and some people can lower the pressure so much that they maybe can stop taking all their other eye drops they don’t have
To pay for those drops. they don’t have to take them throughout the day then now that i said that there are sometimes people will get that procedure and then they still have to be on eyedrops this method this sort of treatment. however is not always first-line it can actually be done just about at any point throughout the treatment period the only real big downsides again
Is that it’s not available for everybody and it actually tends to wear off. so after about five years of having the benefits of having this procedure it can wear off and has to be repeated again so this isn’t a fantastic option and i do think it’s great for some people but you have to also there’s a few other things you have to weigh out with your eye doctor with the patient
To make sure that hey they’re a good candidate. also. this procedure isn’t always covered by insurance and so sometimes this can cost quite a bit of money to have done i’ve actually seen it anywhere from four to up to like seven thousand dollars to have this procedure completed here in the united states if it’s something you’re interested in if maybe you’re having trouble
Taking medications talk to your doctors about this option of having a laser trabeculoplasty medications to lower the eye pressure or having the laser procedure to lower the pressure if for some reason the pressure isn’t low enough or the advanced or glaucoma continues to advance then your doctor will recommend more more invasive surgeries. now. these surgeries are always
Our last line of defense they’re not recommended right away because they are associated with more classically we have the trabeculectomy or maybe an external tube shunt such as the ahmed valve these do lower the eye pressure considerably. however, they are associated with more complications so now we’re recommending what are called mig’s these are minimally invasive glaucoma
Surgeries and these usually involve really tiny implants inside of the eye again to decrease that eye pressure and what’s great is that these can oftentimes be is so be combined with other surgeries such as cataract surgery so it’s kind of like getting a two-for-one. so these are excellent they’re less complication rates and they usually lower the considerable amounts. no if
You’re gonna have any of these surgeries do keep in mind that you are gonna be on several eye drops before the surgery. probably even more eye drops after the surgery people are still on i pressure lowering medications you have to see your doctor several times a year just to keep that pressure low and verify that it’s in a safe level and if for some reason these surgeries
Really just don’t take well, it doesn’t it doesn’t go well for you and yeah, that kind of stinks but we have to do whatever we can to preserve vision so i health question of the day which glaucoma treatments have you heard of which are some of your favorites? do you have any other questions, please? go ahead and comment in the section below. alright, everyone. thanks
So much for watching go ahead and like the video subscribe if you’re new and share this video with any friends or family that you think it might help otherwise if you’d like to catch other cool videos from dr eye health just click or tap the screen up here to the side or click or tap the screen down here otherwise again, this is doctor joe allen hear from dr. eye health
Bringing the best in education about the eyes vision and vision products hey guys, so i got a couple of quick hey guys, so i had a pup. okay. hey guys, so i had
Transcribed from video
Open Angle Glaucoma Treatment : Eye Drops for Glaucoma and Glaucoma Surgery By Doctor Eye Health
