What is Eye Pressure?

Eye pressure, known as black water among the people and glaucoma in the medical literature, is an eye disease that progresses without any symptoms. If treatment is delayed or not treated at all, it may cause permanent eye damage to the person. In eye pressure, the fluid pressure inside the eye rises so much that it damages the optic nerve, which is necessary for our vision. Eye pressure is an eye disease that can occur in people of all ages. It mostly occurs at the age of 40 and above. Individuals who have glaucoma in any of their family members are also at risk. Therefore, individuals over the age of 40 and those with a family history of glaucoma should visit an ophthalmologist at regular intervals. Most patients with glaucoma do not have any symptoms.

If the person is lucky, symptoms such as pain around the eyes while watching television, seeing luminous rings around the lights at night, blurred vision from time to time, and headaches, especially in the morning, may occur in the initial stage of ophthalmic disease.

However, eye pressure is generally noticed in the advanced period, when the person begins to experience visual disturbances. Migraine, eye injuries, long-term cortisone therapy, myopia, diabetes, presence of glaucoma in family members are among the factors that increase the risk of glaucoma. Narrow-angle glaucoma is another type of glaucoma. It appears suddenly. It occurs with symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, redness of the eye, decreased vision and severe eye pain. It needs to be treated urgently. Narrow-angle glaucoma, which occurs in children and infants, has symptoms such as eye enlargement, sensitivity to light, and eye watering.

If the treatment of glaucoma is delayed or not treated at all, loss of vision may occur in the person. Once vision loss occurs in the person, it is irreversible. Abnormal eye pressure, which is noticed during a normal eye examination, may be the first symptom of this disease. It is important to be examined regularly in order not to be late for treatment in such diseases. While diagnosing eye pressure, the specialist doctor measures the intraocular pressure of the person with an instrument called a tonometer. Afterwards, the patient's eyes are examined and the condition of his nerves is checked. If the doctor thinks he should, he may also perform a vision test on the patient. Tests such as RNFL, NFA, or HRT may also be used.

Eye Pressure Treatment

The 3 most common ways to treat glaucoma are medication, laser therapy, and surgery. In drug treatment, the patient's intraocular blood pressure is primarily lowered. Some drugs are used to do this. It is very important for people who use drugs to be examined by a doctor regularly until the treatment is completely terminated. Because the drug treatment does not work, there may be situations such as excessive side effects. In such cases, medical intervention is essential. Laser has two treatment methods. If the specialist doctor thinks that which one is more suitable for you, that laser treatment method will be applied to you. If there is no improvement in the person's condition despite medication and laser treatment, the only remaining method is surgery. According to the condition of the patient and the optic nerves, eye pressure treatment is performed with a method suitable for the patient. Apart from these 3 main methods, there are methods such as trabeculectomy, minimally invasive glaucoma surgeries, tube implantation, cyclodestructive procedures, infant glaucoma surgeries, bleb revision, viscocanalostomy, canaloplasty. In addition to these, xen implant surgery and laser iridoplasty can also be performed.