Glaucoma is damage to the optic nerve, usually related to eye pressure. These pages explain the condition, the tests used to follow it, and each of the treatments, most with an animation you can step through.
Basics
What Is Glaucoma?
Glaucoma is damage to the optic nerve, usually linked to eye pressure. Why it has no symptoms early, who is at risk, and how it is treated.
How Treatments Lower Eye Pressure
The eye as a sink: a faucet that makes fluid, drains that carry it away, and a water level that is the eye pressure. Tap each glaucoma treatment (drops, SLT, MIGS, trabeculectomy, tube shunt, cyclophotocoagulation) to see what it changes.
Glaucoma Testing
What happens at a glaucoma visit: eye pressure, the visual field test, OCT imaging, gonioscopy and corneal thickness, and what the results mean.
Using Eye Drops
Step-by-step technique for putting in eye drops, why to wait five minutes between drops, pressing the tear duct, missed doses, storage and refills.
Lasers
SLT Laser
Selective laser trabeculoplasty: an office laser that lowers eye pressure by treating the eye's drain, done either through a contact lens or as direct SLT (DSLT) with no lens. With a step-by-step animation, what the visit is like, and what to expect afterward.
Laser Iridotomy
Laser peripheral iridotomy: a quick office laser that makes a tiny opening in the iris to open a narrow drainage angle. With an animation of what the laser does, what the visit is like, and what to expect afterward.
Micropulse and CPC Laser
Cyclophotocoagulation: a laser applied to the outside of the eye that lowers pressure by reducing how much fluid the eye makes. Micropulse and standard CPC compared, with a step-by-step animation, what the day is like, and what to expect afterward.
Surgery
MIGS
Minimally invasive glaucoma surgery: small implants and procedures, often combined with cataract surgery, that lower pressure with a quicker recovery than traditional surgery. With step-by-step animations of a stent, a goniotomy, viscodilation, and viscodilation combined with a stent.
Trabeculectomy
Trabeculectomy creates a new drainage channel under the eyelid to lower eye pressure in advanced glaucoma. With a step-by-step animation, what the operation involves, the twelve-week recovery, and warning signs.
Tube Shunt Surgery
Glaucoma drainage devices (Ahmed, Baerveldt): a small tube and plate that drain fluid from the eye. With a step-by-step animation, who they are for, the operation, and the six-week recovery.