Over 3 million people in the United States have glaucoma and this number is expected to double by the year 2050. Your risk factors of developing glaucoma—the second leading cause of blindness in America—include your age, family history, race, nearsightedness and a history of blunt trauma.
Since the disease typically doesn’t present symptoms until the late stages, the only way to know you have glaucoma is with an eye examination.
But there is hope for patients with glaucoma at the Cheyenne Eye Clinic & Surgery Center.
Early diagnosis is critical, that’s why we have all the latest modern and advanced equipment to provide patients with an early and accurate diagnosis.
When you take control of your health, by getting regular eye exams and beginning an appropriate treatment plan, you are less likely to have significant vision loss from glaucoma.
Glaucoma is a chronic disease of the optic nerve. Each eye has an optic nerve which is comprised of over a million fibers. The fibers carry visual information that lands on the retina inside the eye, to the brain where vision is interpreted. In people with glaucoma, those fibers slowly degenerate and die away. After a certain number of fibers are damaged, people will have weakness in their eyesight corresponding with whatever fibers were damaged.
Regular eye exams are essential for early diagnosis. Patients who begin treatment in the early stages of the disease and comply with their doctor’s recommendations most typically do well and do not experience significant, noticeable vision loss in their lifetimes. Even if glaucoma is diagnosed in the later stages, there is still hope to try to preserve what vision remains.
Unfortunately, glaucoma cannot be cured, but with the appropriate lowering of the eye pressure, the disease can be significantly slowed with careful management. Eye pressure can be lowered by eye drops, laser, or surgery. Compliance with therapy and your doctor’s recommendations is essential to prevent further vision loss from glaucoma.
Dr. Anne Miller specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma, including medical, laser and incisional surgery. She has been caring for glaucoma patients in Cheyenne since 2001 and has performed thousands of successful glaucoma surgeries. You don’t have to travel to see a top glaucoma specialist—she’s right on 20th Street.
No two patients are the same—the way no two pairs of eyes are the same—which means we work with you to personalize your treatment plan. The Cheyenne Eye Clinic & Surgery Center has all of the most modern and advanced equipment to provide patients with an early and accurate diagnosis, as well as multiple options for treatment.
LASER TREATMENTS: Dr. Miller performs Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty (SLT). This is an outpatient procedure that only takes a few minutes to perform and is typically painless. The laser light is focused into the drainage canals and stimulates special cells (macrophages) to clear out debris, allowing the fluid of the eye to exit more easily. About 75–80% of patients experience pressure reduction, eliminating the need to take eye drops for some time. The effect of the laser will wear off over time but can be safely repeated. Most patients enjoy at least 2 years and often more, of pressure reduction from SLT.
Another laser procedure, laser cyclodiode, is performed in the operating room when other treatment options have not allowed sufficient eye pressure lowering or the patient is not a good candidate for them.
GLAUCOMA AND CATARACT SURGERY: If a patient with glaucoma has cataract surgery, this is an excellent opportunity to allow further reduction of the eye pressure by implantation of an iStent™. The iStent is a type of MIGS procedure (minimally invasive glaucoma surgery). Dr. Anne Miller has performed this delicate procedure on over 100 happy patients, many of whom enjoy taking fewer (if any) glaucoma drops afterward!
SURGICAL TREATMENT: Once other options have been exhausted, surgery can be an excellent way to achieve even lower eye pressure and temporarily eliminate the need for eye drops. Dr. Miller performs ExPRESS mini shunt glaucoma drainage device procedures in many patients. This surgery reroutes the fluid of the eye onto the surface (under the upper eyelid) where there is less resistance to outflow and the fluid is absorbed. Several follow up visits after the surgery is necessary to ensure a good result.
If the ExPRESS surgery scars too much, and/or the patient is not an appropriate candidate, often a tube-shunt procedure is the next step. Dr. Miller uses Ahmed and Baerveldt glaucoma drainage devices.
David Smits, M.D. is a cataract surgery and glaucoma specialist at Cheyenne Eye Clinic & Surgery Center. He’s been interested in medicine for as long as he can remember, but began focusing on the eyes after watching his first cataract surgery – an elegant procedure, he calls it, and one that has the ability to
Since 1903, the Cheyenne Eye Clinic and Surgery Center has provided comprehensive eye care services to improve patients’ sight and enhance their lives—and we want to do the same for you.
Monday – Friday: 7:30am – 5:00pm
Saturday and Sunday: CLOSED
For after hours emergencies, please call 307-634-2020
Our Optical Department will close at 2:00 PM on November 20th to attend the memorial service for a dear friend and colleague.
We apologize for the inconvenience.