Medical Treatment

An ophthalmologist must treat angle-closure glaucoma with either laser therapy or surgical therapy (see Surgery).

• A laser iridotomy is the most commonly performed procedure. During a laser iridotomy, your eye doctor uses a laser beam to make a hole in the iris to reduce the pressure inside the eye. By making a hole in the iris, the fluid (aqueous humor) is better able to drain out from the posterior chamber to the anterior chamber of the eye.
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• If the iris cannot be accessed with a laser beam for some reason, a surgical (or incisional) iridectomy is performed, wherein your eye doctor creates the hole in the iris by making surgical incisions.

Prior to a laser iridotomy, your ophthalmologist uses medicines to reduce the pressure inside the eye and to clear up the cloudiness of the cornea that occur during an acute attack of angle-closure glaucoma. Also, because the pupil is often partially dilated (or enlarged), it is constricted (or made smaller) before laser surgery. See Medications.