Glaucoma Treatment Burien | Laser Glaucoma Surgery Seattle

GLAUCOMA TREATMENT IN SEATTLE

Glaucoma is an eye disease that damages the optic nerve by limiting the circulation of aqueous humor fluid that helps maintain healthy eye pressure. When aqueous humor doesn’t flow properly, it can cause a build up in fluid pressure that leads to optic nerve damage. There are many types of glaucoma, including:

OPEN-ANGLE GLAUCOMA

The most common form of glaucoma occurs when your eye stops draining fluid correctly. This causes pressure to build, which leads to damage to the optic nerve.

NORMAL TENSION GLAUCOMA

This type of glaucoma occurs when there is normal pressure in the eye, but the same type of damage to the optic nerve and symptoms as in other types of glaucoma. Because the pressure remains normal, normal tension glaucoma is even harder to diagnose and must be monitored much more closely when detected.

CLOSED-ANGLE GLAUCOMA

Also known as narrow-angle or angle-closure glaucoma, closed-angle glaucoma is caused when the drainage of eye fluid becomes blocked, causing pressure to build up fast. Complete blockage of a drainage angle results in a closed-angle glaucoma attack, which has clear symptoms and requires immediate treatment.

CONGENITAL GLAUCOMA

Congenital glaucoma is a rare type of glaucoma that occurs in infants and children and is usually inherited. While uncommon, this disease often results in blindness when not diagnosed and treated early.

SECONDARY GLAUCOMA

Secondary glaucoma develops from another eye condition or disease, an eye injury or tumor developing around the area to cause an increase in pressure.

SYMPTOMS OF GLAUCOMA

During the early stages of open-angle glaucoma, there are no clear symptoms. As the disease worsens and further damage occurs to the optic nerve, peripheral blind spots may begin to develop. However, these blind spots can easily go unnoticed. Eventually, as the damage slowly progresses, you will begin to lose more and more of your vision until blindness occurs. In the event of a closed-angle glaucoma attack, the following symptoms can occur abruptly:

Severe eye or brow pain
Redness of the eye
Decreased or blurred vision
Seeing colored rainbows or halos
Headache
Nausea
Vomiting

TESTING FOR GLAUCOMA

If we suspect glaucoma, we will test your eyes in a variety of ways. First, we will check your visual acuity and measure the pressure in your eye. Regular and complete eye exams help us monitor the changes in your eyesight and determine if glaucoma has developed. We may also order a visual field examination, corneal thickness determination and optic nerve head analysis. Using laser technology and enhanced computer imagery, we are often able to diagnose and detect problems before a patient begins to experience vision loss.