Treatments
Glaucoma eye drops
What are glaucoma eye drops?
Glaucoma eye drops are drugs applied in the form of drops in the eye to lower intraocular pressure, which is the only risk factor we can control, when we diagnose the disease. Reducing this pressure to “target limits” allows us to slow down the progression of optic nerve damage and the consequent loss of visual field.
To do so, the initial stage of treatment (before other alternatives such as glaucoma laser or glaucoma surgery) is usually the use of topical medication using hypotensive eye drops. However, your ophthalmologist will determine the best solution for your case, depending on the type of glaucoma and the stage of the disease at the time of diagnosis.
Techniques
Eye diseases treated
This type of eye drops may also be indicated to treat ocular hypertension, even if you do not have glaucoma, and thus prevent the optic nerve from being damaged by maintaining high levels of pressure inside the eye.
Types of eye drops for glaucoma
There are different types of drops that we can prescribe:
- Glaucoma eye drops that reduce the production of aqueous humour (fluid that bathes the eyes structures and, if it accumulates, exerts excessive pressure on the optic nerve and damages it).
- Eye drops for glaucoma that increase the drainage of the aqueous humour, hence facilitating its elimination and also preventing an increase in intraocular pressure.
Likewise, we can opt for a monotherapy strategy (a single drug) or for combined therapy (several drugs, which can be combined in the same eye drops).
The current trend is to use of single-dose, preservative-free eye drops, which preserve the eye surface and help avoid long-term intolerance, as they are chronic treatments.
Use of glaucoma eye drops
There are different treatment guidelines for the different types of eye drops: some you only need to apply once a day, while others require 2 or 3 applications. It is very important that you follow your ophthalmologist’s instructions and that you respect the indicated doses, avoiding putting more drops than necessary or skipping any application.
In fact, around 25-30% of patients do not use glaucoma eye drops constantly, which can make them less effective and prevent us from reducing intraocular pressure to the desired levels. At the Miranza clinics, our specialists will provide you with timely follow-up and adapt the treatment to your needs.