# What to Do About Glaucoma

Source page: https://www.kudretgozistanbul.com/en/blog/eye-diseases/what-to-do-about-glaucoma

**Author:** Kudret Eye İstanbul | **Medical Approval:** Op. Dr. Mehmet Ali Özdil | **Date:** 2026-09-05

> **Summary:** Glaucoma is a common eye condition in which persistently raised pressure inside the eye damages the optic nerve, causing gradual and irreversible vision loss. It often shows no early symptoms, so regular eye examinations are the key to early diagnosis. It cannot be cleared completely, but medication, laser (including SLT) and surgery keep it under control and prevent further nerve damage.

## Quick Facts
- **Cause:** Fluid produced in the eye cannot drain, so eye pressure rises and damages the optic nerve
- **Higher risk:** Age forty and over, family history
- **Check-ups:** Every 2 years up to age forty, once a year after forty, more often with family history
- **SLT effect:** Pressure falls by an average of 20-30 per cent; full effect usually within one to three months
- **Cure:** Not curable; treatment keeps it under control

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## How Does Glaucoma Develop?
- Fluid produced in the vascular layer of the eye normally drains away; when it cannot, it gathers and raises eye pressure.
- Persistently high pressure damages the optic nerve and, over time, the vessels and nerves in the eye; the damage is irreversible.
- Not everyone with high eye pressure has glaucoma, and pressure can rise at times for other reasons.

## Who Gets Glaucoma?
- No clear age range because of genetic causes, but predisposition rises from age forty and with a family history.

## Causes and Risk Factors
- Diabetes, thyroid conditions
- Eye injuries, especially serious ones that raise eye pressure; retinal conditions; eye tumours; certain eye operations
- Genetic factors and predisposition
- High myopia and high hyperopia
- Long courses of corticosteroid treatment
- Migraine
- High or low blood pressure
- Prevention: regular ophthalmologist visits, knowing family history, regular exercise, avoiding harmful habits, and seeing a doctor after any serious eye injury.

## Symptoms
- Open angle glaucoma, the most common type, usually causes no symptoms until advanced.
- Acute angle closure needs urgent treatment and can cause sudden severe eye pain, redness, blurred vision, haloes around lights at night, nausea, and forehead or head pain.
- Extreme light sensitivity in childhood can be a sign.
- Glaucoma does not typically cause headache; a sudden severe headache with eye pain and redness can point to acute angle closure. Only a doctor can diagnose glaucoma.

## Diagnosis
Eye pressure measurement, computerised visual field test, OCT, optic nerve examination, HRT.

## Treatment
- Two forms: open angle and closed angle; treatment depends on the person.
- Options: medication, laser treatment, surgery. Surgery is generally the last resort when medication does not lower the pressure.
- **SLT (selective laser trabeculoplasty):** Quick, not surgery. The eye is numbed with drops and laser light helps the gathered fluid drain. Pressure starts falling in the first weeks, with full effect usually within one to three months and an average fall of 20-30 per cent.
- Treatment does not clear glaucoma but stops it progressing and damaging the nerves further.

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## References
- Glaucoma: diagnosis and management, NICE
- Glaucoma, NHS
- Glaucoma, NEI