No symptoms – no disease

Not. Glaucoma is an insidious disease in which the symptoms appear quite late. Among them are blurred vision, the appearance of rainbow circles in front of light sources, for example, when a person looks at a light bulb or car headlight.

Eye pain and redness appear when it is no longer possible to cure glaucoma. Sight is lost irrevocably and the disease goes into the final, terminal stage.

A feature of glaucoma is the absence of symptoms in the early and advanced stages of the disease. The patient himself does not know about the disease until he begins to lose his sight. In order to notice the disease in time, preventive examination by an ophthalmologist is necessary. It should be taken once a year, and after 50 years – twice a year.

Glaucoma is treated only with drops.

Not. For the treatment of glaucoma, there are many techniques. For example, conservative methods are drops, which are prescribed to try to remove high pressure, which has a traumatic effect on the optic nerve.

In the world there is a huge amount of antiglaucoma drugs. There are those that can be used to compensate for intraocular pressure for a long time, especially in the early stages of the disease.

However, it is well known that glaucoma ranks first in blindness in the world and in disability . If the disease has passed into the developed stage, then it is impossible to return the sight by any means. This means that it is necessary not only to begin therapeutic treatment, but also to perform surgical or laser surgery in time.

Combined treatment combining both drug therapy (drops) and laser treatments is considered to be the most effective. If necessary, surgery can also be performed. For example, minimally traumatic – non-penetrating deep sclerectomy . Such an operation is highly efficient and allows you to save vision for many years. It is minimally invasive , unpleasant symptoms after surgery last only 1-3 days.

After the operation, a new path of intraocular fluid outflow is formed. The fact is that with glaucoma, intraocular fluid stagnates and this leads to an increase in intraocular pressure. Due to the accumulation of fluid, the optic nerve cells gradually die off. During the operation, the discharge of excess fluid occurs like the discharge of water in a dam.

In general, it cannot be argued that glaucoma can only be treated with drops. Dealing with it without connecting a laser surgery and surgery is not always possible.

Modern drops of glaucoma are effective and harmless.

Not really. Pharmacology is moving forward and indeed those drops that are used by ophthalmologists during the initial stages of glaucoma or in urgent cases are really effective and help to reduce the patient’s eye pressure for a sufficiently long period.

There are monopreparations , as well as fixed combinations of drugs that really help. Their effectiveness is not in doubt, but one cannot definitely answer about security.

Drops contain the active substance in the form of a solution, as well as the preservative benzalkonium hydrochloride. Now identified the negative effects of this preservative. With prolonged use, especially if the doctor does not change the drug and the patient for a long time uses the same medicine, dry eye syndrome (redness, pain, dryness) may develop.

If you use drops with a preservative for 3-4 years, then at the moment when surgical treatment is needed, it will not be as effective as it could have been if there had been no medical treatment. This is due to the fact that the preservative changes the eye surface.

Glaucoma can be treated with folk remedies.

Not. Speaking of folk remedies, we mean a wide range of products: herbs, waste products of bees, everything that popular wisdom has studied and collected for centuries. In spite of the fact that in some conditions these agents may indeed be useful, this does not apply to glaucoma.

Instillation of herbal preparations or solutions, the use of honey, the intake of blueberries in large quantities has no effect on the condition of the eye.

As a result of this “therapy,” vision does not improve. With the use of folk remedies valuable time, when it would be possible to start a normal treatment, may be lost, then even surgical treatment is useless.

Instead of going to the doctor, people try to “get treated” with folk remedies – the vision disappears and it cannot be returned.

Glaucoma only older people get sick

Not certainly in that way. Glaucoma is a disease of the elderly. However, there are different forms, for example, juvenile, pigment, which appear in younger people.

You must go to the doctor to rule out glaucoma in the event that suspicious symptoms appear, for example:

• suddenblurring of vision, when you want to wipe your eyes, and there is no improvement after that;
• constantweak pain – hurts the eye and head from the side of the eye.

Why does glaucoma occur in young people? Tissue degeneration may be due to genetics or is a consequence of intrauterine changes.

Glaucoma may be congenital. Tissue changes in this case are minor and damage for a long time does not make itself felt, but with age they can manifest.

The operation needs to be done only when the vision has deteriorated significantly.

Not. We see cases when patients come to us after the doctor has exhausted all their means: people bury three kinds of drops, take pills, but the intraocular pressure does not decrease, the vision drops dramatically. Here we are talking about the operation.

We, MNTK specialists, repeatedly called for it: it is not worth waiting for the moment when the vision with glaucoma starts to deteriorate. Even if the patient receives treatment, it must be remembered that glaucoma, operated on at an early stage, stops. This allows you to save vision for many years.

This is a great opportunity for a person to preserve the quality of life and their visual functions as they were when referring to a doctor.

After glaucoma surgery, vision will also improve, as after replacing the lens

In most cases, no. In some cases, especially if the eye pressure is very high, the vision is really improved after the operation. But at the same time, I would like to warn that the task of such an operation is to preserve vision, and not to improve it.

We do not expect that vision will be better as after replacing the lens. Our task is to preserve the patient’s vision for many years and stop the progression of the disease.

Glaucoma will not reappear after surgery.

Not always like this. The answer to this question depends largely on what stage the disease was when the patient went to the doctor. If we operate a patient at an early stage, then with further observation by his ophthalmologist, if the patient is properly administered by a doctor and the patient observes all instructions, the disease will not progress at all.

It stays with the patient forever, but if all measures have been taken – laser or surgical operation – the disease will be stopped at this initial stage and there will be no progression of the disease towards the destruction of the optic nerve cells.

If the patient is treated at a late stage, if there is a loss of visual function or loss of the visual fields (and significant), then in this case even the combined treatment is unable to help and stop the progression of the disease.

If you experience any symptoms, you need to consult a doctor – you may need an adjustment or even a second operation.

Getting into a leading federal institution for treating glaucoma is very difficult.

Not at all. MNTK is open to all. Our clinic works from 8-30 to 17 hours. You only need a referral from a district ophthalmologist – with his hands, you can make an appointment by phone or online. In addition to the direction you need a passport and a medical policy. Those who want to be treated on a commercial basis do not need a referral.

Glaucoma always causes blindness.

Not. If the patient is not engaged in treatment, if treatment was started out of time, then the disease can progress quite quickly. This leads to loss of vision.

Now we can use the whole range of possibilities: conservative treatment, laser treatment, surgical treatment. You can use each approach separately or combine them.

A patient who on time (at the onset of the disease) went to the doctor, or the disease was detected during a routine examination, has every chance of preserving vision and quality of life. In that case, if glaucoma exists for more than a year, then it is advisable not to delay laser or surgical treatment.

The number of people with glaucoma is increasing worldwide from year to year. This is due to the increase in life expectancy and the improvement of diagnostics. The number of patients may increase, but it is important not to increase the number of those who have lost their sight completely. The most correct thing to do is to consult a doctor in time.