What to do about vision loss after glaucoma surgery

  The goal of glaucoma surgery is to slow or end the progression of glaucoma by reducing the pressure in the eye and preventing continued damage to the optic nerve from high intraocular pressure. The surgery itself does not improve the patient’s vision. Therefore, it is normal for vision not to improve after surgery.        In addition to the above-mentioned factors of short time vision change, the following factors may exist: 1. After anti-glaucoma surgery, the disease still progresses and there is still progressive damage to the optic nerve, which leads to continued vision loss. The reason may be that the postoperative intraocular pressure has not been effectively controlled or has not decreased enough to achieve the purpose of surgery, and the intraocular pressure has not been reduced to the expected value and is still damaging the person’s optic nerve. If this is the case, the IOP must be controlled either by reoperation or by increasing the medication used to lower the IOP. Once the IOP is properly controlled, most patients will have their condition under control, it will no longer progress, and their vision will not continue to decline.  2, but for a small number of patients, especially for advanced patients or patients with normal IOP glaucoma, even if the IOP is properly controlled, the disease is still progressing, the optic nerve is continuously damaged, and the vision continues to decline. In this group of patients, the factors of optic nerve damage may include insufficient blood supply in addition to IOP. Therefore, in addition to actively lowering the IOP, it is also necessary to conduct examinations related to the blood supply to the eye and give treatment even after problems are found in order to prevent further development of the disease.  3. Glaucoma surgery is mostly seen in middle-aged and elderly people, and most of these patients have different degrees of cataracts. As they age, cataracts can worsen and cause vision loss. In a small number of patients, cataract progression may accelerate after antiglaucoma surgery, with an increase in crystal clouding and accelerated vision loss. For such patients, if the cataract aggravates to a certain degree and affects the quality of life or work of the patient, cataract surgery can be considered, and the vision loss caused by cataract will be restored after the surgery.