Category: glaucoma

glaucoma, Macular Degeneration

Farewell to Glaucoma Awareness Month

dralanmendelsohn

The last day of January is also the final day of Glaucoma Awareness Month. I hope that via my blog posts and YouTube Videos your awareness of Glacuoma is now significantly increased.

Here is my final Glaucoma Awareness video for the year outlining treatment of it.

Out of this, I hope you will be more proactive when it comes to your eyes. Don’t just wait for something to happen to them, especially if you’re over 50.

As for what I will talk about next, unfortunately there are many other ailments that can affect the eyes. Depending on who you hold be, February is Low Vision Awareness Month or Age-Related Macular Degeneration Awareness month,

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is one of the leading, if not the number one cause of blindness among older people. As dangerous as glaucoma is, macular degeneration among the elderly simply can not be ignored.

 

 

diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, lifestyle, Macular Degeneration

Smoky Eyes

dralanmendelsohn

When it comes to smoking and the health dangers it poses, first and foremost it’s about the lungs.

It seems reasonable that this is the case, but the eyes are also part of the equation.

As I’ve written previously, a healthy lifestyle is good for the eyes and the reverse is also true, to the extent that the eyes are actually a barometer of the body’s overall health.

Because illnesses such as glaucoma, macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy aren’t on the radar of people, it’s not on their radar when it comes to smoking.

If you said to someone, there could be a good chance you may lose your eyesight from smoking, do you think they would continue to do so?

glaucoma

Vyzulta and Glaucoma

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Despite all the medical advances, there haven’t been recent developments when it comes to eye drops and those suffering from glaucoma.

This is until now. The release of Vyzulta could be a game-changer.

I’ve written a post at Glaucoma.org documenting my thoughts on the matter.

After many years in development and trialing, it’s now been released and we shall see what happens next.

eye exam, glaucoma

Angle Closure Glaucoma

dralanmendelsohn

As I continue to spread awareness on glaucoma, I now want to talk more about angle closure glaucoma.

It results in blocking the part of the eye that allows fluid to leave the eye and thus there is an increase in intraocular pressure (IOP). 

How does this happen? Typically the angle is situated between the peripheral iris and cornea. Here the trabecular meshwork, which normally will filter out the fluid is located. When the iris is up against the meshwork, the fluid can’t escape.

If not detected quickly, the pressure will build up and can result is significant symptoms such as nerve damage and vision loss.

So if you have a family history of glaucoma or are over 50 years, you should definitely be having an annual eye exam.

eye surgery, glaucoma

Chronic Open Angle Glaucoma and Surgical Treatment

dralanmendelsohn

The reason why ophthalmologists go on and on about having regular eye exams is so glaucoma can be detected at an early stage.

The earlier it is detected, the sooner treatment can start and given the glaucoma isn’t as advanced, the treatment needed won’t be as invasive.

But let’s say a patient hasn’t had a regular eye exam and now they’re diagnosed with Chronic Open Angle Glaucoma?

So this could be treated with eye drops, laser surgery and the innovative MIGS which stands for Minimally Invasive Glaucoma Surgery.

Should you have any questions about Chronic Open Angle Glaucoma or any other type of glaucoma please feel free to contact me.

eye surgery, glaucoma

How to Treat Angle Closure Glaucoma

dralanmendelsohn

Angle Closure Glaucoma is also known as narrow angle glaucoma. How should it be treated?

When angle-closure glaucoma the iris is narrower than it should be.

To  treat this we need to use a laser to remove a portion of the iris.Thankfully the surgery tends to work well and there aren’t any additional problems. Saying this, a patient should still have regular checkups to monitor the eye and how it’s healing.

 

 

eye exam, glaucoma

Glaucoma and Optic Nerve Photos

dralanmendelsohn

When to go to the dentist for a checkup it’s common for s/he to take an x-ray of your teeth. They will then use these x-rays to assess the health of your teeth.

An ophthalmologist can not take an x-ray of the optic nerve so instead we take an optic nerve photo.

 

The great thing about the photos is that they are stored digitally so they can easily be brought up to compare.

Should the patient ever move and thus have a new ophthalmologist we can easily forward them onto their new doctor.

We use the photo to assess the health of the optic nerve. Should there be a glaucoma or anything else that is impacting the optic nerve, we will be able to see that.

 

eye exam, glaucoma, Macular Degeneration

Importance of OCT – Ocular Coherence Tomography

dralanmendelsohn

As an ophthalmologist, I have many tools at my disposal to gauge the health of my patients’ eyes not just pre-surgery but post-surgery.

Once such tool is Ocular Coherence Tomography which we refer to as OCT.

The tool is used to examine the retina and the eye’s anterior segment. It is great for assessing macular degeneration, glaucoma and diabetic eye disease.

First introduced in 1991, we are so fortunate to live in an age like today where sophisticated technology like this can be harnessed. I use this tool everyday to get a thorough appreciation and understanding of the patient’s eye.

glaucoma

What is Humphrey Visual Field Testing??

dralanmendelsohn

With it Glaucoma Awareness month, we’ve spoken a lot about being proactive and having an eye exam.

So you followed my advice and are going to do one. Congratulations! What happens next?

You will go to your ophthalmologist who will perform a Field Test on you. The most commonly used one is the Humphrey visual field which is a fixated light that is positioned central and some blinking lights on the site.

While focusing on the light straight in front of you, you have to press when you see the blinking light on the side. You have to do your best to stay focused ahead and not be tempted to peek to the side otherwise the test results will be compromised.

Any black spots on your test results indicate you have something obscuring your vision, most likely a glaucoma.