✅GLAUCOMA: treatment and symptoms - Oftalvist

Glaucoma treatment
From the Glaucoma Unit of Oftalvist, Dr. José Luis Rodriguez Prats, explains in this video all about glaucoma: what it is, symptoms and treatment. In addition, in this video a glaucoma patient, Joaquín Carratalá, also a member of the Glaucoma association for affected and patients AGAF, gives us his testimony as affected by that disease.
The type of glaucoma treatment will depend on the evaluation made by the specialist ophthalmologist and this may be with surgery, laser or medication. It is common to resort to drops with medication to reduce intraocular pressure.
When glaucoma affects the veins of the retina and there is a sudden loss of vision of the visual field, the correct treatment is with intraocular injections in order to be able to eliminate thrombosis and therefore eliminate the fluid accumulated by the vascular problem (edema)
Glaucoma operation
When the treatment goes through surgery, this involves making a fistula that communicates the inside of the eyeball with the subconjunctival space, thus allowing to relieve the intraocular pressure by draining the aqueous humor out of the balloon. The usual glaucoma surgeries are: sclerectomy, trabeculectomy, sclerotrabeculectomy with or without an express valve implant. Also today there is also minimally invasive glaucoma surgery MIGS ((Micro Incisional Glaucoma Surgery) that helps improve the natural drainage of the eye.
Does glaucoma have a cure?
Glaucoma is a common disease that affects 2% of the population over 40 years and 14% of those over 60 years, and has no cure, but if treated in time makes it possible to avoid a significant visual impairment.
For this reason, early detection is very important, often due to an ophthalmological review, especially in cases of patients with a family history of glaucoma.
Glaucoma is the lesion of optic nerve fibers produced by an increase in intraocular pressure caused by a lack of drainage of the aqueous humor found in the anterior chamber of the eye with the function of nourishing and oxygenate the structures of the eyeball as the cornea and the lens.
The problem is that it is estimated that only half of patients with glaucoma know that they have this disease and this is because, initially, glaucoma produces no symptoms. The loss of peripheral vision that occurs in early stages is very difficult to detect the patient.
Symptoms and open-angle glaucoma
There are several types of ocular glaucoma but the most frequent is chronic open-angle glaucoma, and this does not produce symptoms at the beginning. There is no pain or redness and vision is lost slowly and progressively, first in the peripheral area to end up affecting the central area in very advanced stages.
This means that the patient often does not know that he has this disease until he has advanced a lot and we must remember that the lesions caused by glaucoma are irreversible.
What risk do I have of having glaucoma?
Anyone can develop glaucoma at any age. The risk factors associated with increased likelihood of having glaucoma are nearsightedness and farsightedness, diabetes or prolonged treatment with corticosteroids. Others may be family history, age or race (higher risk in the black race), among others.
Postoperative glaucoma surgery
After an operation of glaucoma the ophthalmologist will indicate the application of anti-inflammatory and antibiotic drops, as well as periodic reviews for the personalized control of each case. The postoperative period will depend on each patient where the status of the fistula and the evolution of healing after the operation of glaucoma will be assessed.