What actually happens during glaucoma surgery

Dr. Swati Goyal
17 May 2024 · 8 min read

Glaucoma is a plumbing problem. Fluid inside the eye cannot drain fast enough, pressure rises, and the optic nerve is slowly crushed. Surgery is how we build a new drain.

Before the day

You will have had a visual field test and an OCT scan of the optic nerve. Those two images tell us how much nerve is already lost and how fast it is going. We will show them to you and mark where your pressure needs to sit.

In theatre

The eye is numbed, not put to sleep. You stay awake and comfortable. A tiny flap is lifted in the white of the eye and a channel made underneath, so fluid can seep out into a small reservoir under the eyelid. It takes about forty minutes.

Surgery does not give back sight already lost. It protects what you still have — which is why timing matters more than anything.

Afterwards

Vision is blurry for a week or two while the eye settles. You will use drops, and see us often at first — the first month decides how well the new drain behaves for years.