Im a glaucoma patient and had a trabeculectomy done. Can I get eye corrective surgery like Lasik?After the trabeculectomy surgery my eye's pressure is stable. Are there other Laser correction options I might use?
Posted by Garvin
I'm not a surgeon, but I think you may still be a candidate for laser surgery, just not traditional Lasik.
During the Lasik procedure, the pressure in the eye is intentionally raised for the flap to be cut. This raise in pressure is important to the procedure, but not healthy for the eye, especially in someone with advanced glaucoma. Newer Lasik procedures have a "blade-less" or "all-laser" of cutting the flap. PRK is another type of laser surgery that does not cut a flap at all. These options may be safer for someone with glaucoma.
All that being said, generally people that have needed a trabeculectomy have pretty serious glaucoma. Many surgeons may be unwilling to operate.
Many laser centers offer free consultations. Call to find out if that's the case with a laser center near you.
Good luck!
Posted by princeidoc
IMO no trab patient is a candidate for any elective refractive surgery
Posted by Adam
Yes and no.
There's nothing inherent in the trabeculectomy procedure that directly affects the cornea (or at least the parts that refractive surgery involves), so it's not impossible to do both. The problem is convincing a surgeon that he should do an elective procedure on what amounts to a diseased eye -- even if your pressures are stable now, there's no guarantee that will remain the case indefinitely, and thinning the corneas via surgery makes it much more difficult to monitor pressures. There are other laser and non-laser refractive surgeries, but it's still the same problem of doing surgery on an eye that has some preexisting problems.
Your best bet is to call around different surgery centres and say up front "Look, I have glaucoma, it was treated ___ years ago and my pressures are ___, will you still consider me as a patient?" Every surgeon has their own criteria, and they'll let you know one way or the other.
Do you find what you need? Look here!
Mitomycin C Trabeculectomy for Treatment of Glaucoma
www.eyepodvideo.org In this video, Dr. Kwon demonstrates a surgical approach using Mitomycin C trabeculectomy for the treatment of glaucoma. This is one of many high quality glaucoma surgery videos found in his two-DVD set, Master Techniques in Glaucoma Surgery (http Author: Young Kwon, MD, PhD University of Iowa Department of Ophthalmology Subscribe to our FREE newsletter www.medrounds.org
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