Shree Ramkrishna Netralaya’s founder Dr Nitin Deshpande sheds light on Glaucoma

Know Your Town July 3, 2023July 3, 2023

Dr Nitin Deshpande, Chairman, Shree Ramkrishna Netralaya, has over two decades of experience in treating glaucoma patients. He answers some of the common questions about the eye disease:

What is glaucoma?
Glaucoma is an eye disease caused by damage to the optic nerve. The optic nerve is damaged due to pressure increase because of the formation of excess fluid in the front part of the eye. It can affect anyone, be it a newborn baby or an elderly.

What are the reasons for developing glaucoma?
Glaucoma is usually genetic. It can also occur due to swelling in the eye or any eye injury or can be seen among those who ignore or delay their cataract surgeries or take steroids.

What are the types of glaucoma?
Open-angle and Angle-closure are the two main types of glaucoma.
Open-angle glaucoma is characterised by an open angle of the anterior chamber, optic nerve head changes, and progressive loss of peripheral vision, followed by central visual field loss. Angle-closure glaucoma is asymptomatic, but acute angle-closure glaucoma’s symptoms include severe unilateral eye pain or a headache associated with blurred vision, nausea, and vomiting.

What are the treatments for glaucoma?
Some eye drops reduce the fluid formation in the eye, whereas others increase its outflow. The pressure balance is thus restored. The doctor decides on the correct pressure. Besides, there are many surgical options like trabeculectomy, laser iridotomy, micro-incision glaucoma surgery (MIGS), etc.

Being the first Indian to perform istent MIGS, tell us more about it.
MIGS is suitable for early-stage glaucoma. The recovery is speedy since there is only a small cut (micro-incision) and no stitches. You can combine MIGS with your cataract surgery.