Glaucoma can be treated with eye drops, laser or surgery. Both you and your eye doctor will decide which option is most appropriate for you.

Eye drops
Eye drops are commonly used to control glaucoma. However, they can be expensive, messy and have unwanted side effects. They are also considered as a never-ending nuisance since they must be taken several times a day for the rest of your life. Fortunately, today many new glaucoma eye drops can be used only once or twice a day.

Traditional Hot Laser Treatment
With traditional Argon Laser Trabeculoplasty (ALT), tiny burns are made in the trabecular meshwork using a hot Argon laser. These laser burns will decrease intraocular pressure by facilitating the drainage of the aqueous humor. However, they also result in scarring of the normal trabecular meshwork tissue, which may limit their success as well as the ability to retreat the eye.

Selective Cold Laser Treatment  
Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty (SLT) is the latest breakthrough in laser treatment. Instead of burning tissue as in ALT, the cold Yag Laser selectively targets specific pigmented cells.

Both SLT and ALT produce a similar decrease in IOP, however the cold and gentler SLT procedure does not have the associated damage to surrounding normal tissues and adverse scarring effects. For this reason, ALT remains limited, while SLT may be repeated and has few or no side effects.

Traditional surgery
Traditional filtration surgery is called trabeculectomy. It involves making an artificial channel in the side of the eye (sclera and trabecular meshwork) to drain excess fluid. Because trabeculectomy is an intraocular invasive procedure, it carries a high risk of complications during and after surgery.

Selective surgery
A revolutionary new laser procedure called Deep Laser Sclerotomy offers patients a non-invasive surgical alternative. Using an Excimer laser, the sclera is sculpted in order to implant a tiny drain device. The fact that the eye is not penetrated considerably reduces the risk of complications, as well as healing and recovery time.