Glaucoma Treatment in Shreveport, LA

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At Lusk Eye Specialists, we know that glaucoma can be a frightening diagnosis. You may not know how severe your glaucoma is, or what your options are for treatment. And, you may not be sure who to trust with your ongoing eye health and vision while managing this disease. The entire Lusk team is here to be your resource when you’re looking for effective management and treatment of your glaucoma, giving you the peace of mind that you deserve when you have a complex eye condition.
Learn more about what glaucoma is and what it means for your eye health.

Can Glaucoma Be Cured?

Glaucoma is a disease that often causes an increase in the pressure inside your eyes. This pressure pushes on the optical nerve — the part of the eye that transmits images to the brain — and over time, can lead to permanent vision loss. Glaucoma cannot be fully cured, but using a combination of treatments, we can make sure this condition is manageable and, in some cases, stop its progression before it becomes severe.

How Do We Treat Glaucoma?

At Lusk Eye Specialists, we have many options to treat glaucoma. That means that our doctors can build a personalized treatment plan around the factors unique to your case. When it comes to glaucoma treatment and surgery, we’re led by Jeffrey D. Lusk, M.D., a board-certified and fellowship-trained glaucoma specialist. With nearly two decades of experience, Dr. Lusk leads a team with a commitment to finding advanced solutions to common eye problems — a passion that can only be instilled by a family practice as dedicated to the patient experience as ours is.

Glaucoma is a progressive disease that can worsen over time, but we can manage it with expertly designed treatment plans, which we develop with your specific needs in mind. The three types of glaucoma treatment that we offer are glaucoma eye drops, selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT), and a range of glaucoma surgeries tailored to each patient.

Glaucoma Eye Drops

Many patients can successfully manage their glaucoma using a regimen of specialized eye drops. These eye drops effectively lower the pressure within affected eyes and prevent further progression of glaucoma. Most either reduce the production of fluid in the eye, known as the aqueous humor or help to improve the eye’s drainage of this fluid.

Classes of eye drops include:

• Alpha Agonists (Alphagan)
• Beta Blockers (Timolol)
• Carbonic Anhydrase Inhibitors (Azopt, Trusopt)
• Prostaglandins (Xalatan, Travatan, Lumigan, Vyzulta)
• Rho Kinase Inhibitors (Rhopressa, Rocklatan)

If these options are confusing, that’s okay. Our expert doctors will be able to help you decide which drop regimen best suits the specifics of your case.

Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty (SLT)

Some patients are better served by a more permanent solution, either because it’s necessary to promote drainage from the eye, or because they don’t want to have to use so many drops on a daily basis. In these cases, we may recommend a mild laser procedure called selective laser trabeculoplasty, or SLT.

In SLT, a laser is used to treat the trabecular meshwork in your eyes, which is the tissue responsible for draining aqueous humor. This is sometimes called the eye’s “drainage tissue”. This procedure “selectively” operates on targeted areas to improve the flow of fluid out of the eye and reduce intraocular pressure.

SLT is a quick, safe, and painless procedure to reduce pressure within the eye. It’s important to know that this is a gentle clinic procedure and not surgery. It can be completed in about 5 minutes, and because it only treats small parts of the trabecular meshwork at a time, it can be repeated as necessary to increase drainage even further. While SLT generally isn’t a complete replacement for eye drops it can often decrease your dependence on them.

Glaucoma Surgeries

In certain cases, you may be a good candidate for a surgical operation to reduce your eye pressure. Most of these are considered minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS), meaning they are quick, outpatient procedures with minimal recovery demands. Some of them can be done at the same time as cataract surgery, such as the iStent, which makes them even easier to implement in certain cases.
Our surgeries include:

• iStent inject— A microscopic titanium stent is placed in the eye to bypass the trabecular meshwork
• Hydrus® Microstent — A microscopic curved stent is placed in Schlemm’s canal, a part of the eye’s drainage system, to slightly expand it and increase flow out of the eye
• XEN® Gel Stent — A microscopic flexible stent is placed under the conjunctiva (the membrane covering the white of the eye) to drain the aqueous humor
• Trabeculectomy/Trabeculotomy 360 — Using our OMNI™ Surgical System, a “trap door” is created in the eye’s wall (sclera) to allow fluid to slowly flow out
• Goniotomy — Using the Kahook Dual Blade®, micro incisions are made in the trabecular network to increase the flow of fluid
• MicroPulse® Laser Therapy — This gentle and quick form of cyclophotocoagulation helps slow the fluid-producing ciliary body in the eye from making as much aqueous

In more advanced or progressive glaucoma, Dr. Jeffrey Lusk may recommend a filtering surgery to lower your eye pressure to the maximum extent

• Trabeculectomy: This is a traditional drainage surgery where a controlled “filter” or flap is created at the top of the eye to maximally lower the eye pressure
• Tube shunt: This is an artificial drain that is implanted to drain fluid from the eye in a method similar to trabeculectomy

One of the primary reasons why we offer so many surgical options for glaucoma is that no two cases are identical. We can use a combination of surgeries and drops to deliver the best outcomes for you.

At Lusk Eye Specialists, We Tailor Our Glaucoma Treatment to Your Eyes

We don’t offer “cookie-cutter” glaucoma treatments or a set progression through our treatment options. When you have glaucoma, you should be able to trust that the team providing treatment can build a plan for you that works.

Dr. Jeffrey Lusk and the entire team at Lusk Eye Specialists will work with you to figure out which available treatments makes the most sense for you right now, help set down the specifics of your treatment, and monitor your eyes over the years to determine if any adjustments to your care need to be made.

To learn more about our glaucoma treatment at Lusk, call us at (318) 378-5594 or request an appointment.