About this leaflet

Mr Tarun Sharma wrote this leaflet in 2014 for patients of the Worcestershire glaucoma service. Some details, such as the names of medicines, what is available, or the figures quoted, may have changed since it was written. Your own eye clinic's advice always comes first.

This is the text Emma answers from, so dose amounts are left out on purpose. See the original leaflet.

Because it has no noticeable symptoms, glaucoma is a difficult disease to detect without regular, complete eye exams.

During a glaucoma evaluation, your ophthalmologist will perform a gonioscopy, inspecting your eye’s drainage channel.

During gonioscopy, your ophthalmologist will ask you to sit in a chair facing the microscope (slit lamp) used to look inside your eye. You will place your chin on a chin rest and your forehead against a support bar while looking straight ahead. After your eye has been numbed with eyedrops, your ophthalmologist gently places the goniolens on the front of your eye and directs a narrow beam of light into your eye while looking through the slit lamp to examine the drainage angle.

Determining if the drainage angle of the eye is closed or nearly closed helps your ophthalmologist determine which type of glaucoma you have. Gonioscopy can also detect scarring or other damage to the drainage angle that may explain the cause of certain types of glaucoma.

If your ophthalmologist finds that the drainage angle is closed, a special laser can make a small opening in the iris to open the angle. Laser treatment to open the drainage angle may decrease the pressure in the eye and help control glaucoma.

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