Two Types Of Eye Diseases And Their Treatments To Prevent Vision Loss

Health & Medical Articles

Vision is one of your body's important senses you rely upon every minute you are awake. It is important to take care of your vision, see your eye doctor regularly, and treat any eye diseases you may have. Here are two eye diseases and some choices you have in treatment to prevent vision loss. 

Glaucoma

If you suffer from glaucoma, you most likely know this eye disease can cause vision loss when damage to your optic nerve occurs. To avoid permanent vision loss, it is important your eye can release the build up of fluid pressure, as this pressure is what causes damage to your optic nerve. Fortunately, with today's technology and medical knowledge, there are several glaucoma treatment options you can try to help relieve the pressure in your eye.

The first treatments for glaucoma are eye drops and oral medication. Both of these are used to decrease the amount of fluid your eye creates, thus reducing the amount of pressure in your eye. But it is important to use these prescriptions as suggested by your doctor. Missing a dose can cause an increase in your eye pressure, leading to potential for permanent vision loss.

Laser is another treatment for reducing the pressure in your eye from glaucoma. This laser treatment can be completed in your eye doctor's office or another outpatient center and takes only about 15 minutes. During the procedure, a laser is used to change the shape of your eye's drainage system so your eye fluid can drain more freely. One type of laser surgery alters the trabecular opening in your eye and can be repeated two to three times through your life. This specific type of argon laser surgery has successfully lowered eye pressure in up to 75 percent of patients.

If you have tried medication and laser treatments, but still have glaucoma eye pressure, you can try a traditional surgery. This surgery can either be used to create a flap in the white part of your eye or to insert a stint or tube that extends out from the anterior of your eye. When a flap is cut in your eye's sclera during this type of trabeculectomy surgery, you have a 50 percent chance of not needing any glaucoma medication for quite a while after the surgery. Then, if you do need medication after your surgery, there is a 35 to 40 percent chance you will have much better control of your glaucoma. If you have scarring on your eye from previous glaucoma surgeries, an eye stint is the best option to go with rather than the creation of a flap in your sclera.

Diabetic Retinopathy

If you are diabetic, there is a chance you suffer from damage to your retina blood vessels in your eye. Of the 26 million Americans that have diabetes, more than 28 percent of those diabetics age 40 and older have diabetic retinopathy. This eye disease can result in permanent vision loss if you don't prevent it or have it treated. Allowing your blood glucose to remain elevated for too long will put pressure on the tiny blood vessels that feed your eye's retina. 

Laser eye surgery is one treatment that can stop the bleeding from your eye's blood vessels. A high-intensity laser is focused into your eye to seal off the bleeding blood vessels so they do not continue to bleed into your eye's vitreous fluid. This laser also shrinks abnormal-growing blood vessels to prevent future bleeding. When your eye's blood vessels continue bleeding, the blood collects in the macula of your eye and causes vision loss.

Because diabetes can increase a protein in your eye that causes abnormal growth of blood vessels, eliminating the growth protein prevents excess vessels to bleed in your eye. Medication injection to eliminate this protein is one of the best treatments for diabetic retinopathy. After you have received an eye injection, the abnormal blood vessels will disappear within 24 to 48 hours. The drugs have a half-life of four to six weeks so the injections will need to be repeated when the drugs wear off and the blood vessels return.

Be sure to take care of your vision and get treatment if you suffer from these two eye diseases. For more information, contact a business such as Country Hills Eye Center.

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31 December 2015

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