How to treat glaucoma in children

We often see glaucoma in adults, but in fact, this disease can also occur in children. Once childhood glaucoma occurs, our first concern is the treatment of this disease. But the key problem is that many parents have relatively little knowledge in this area. So how should glaucoma be treated in children? Let’s see how the editor answers this question.

Juvenile glaucoma mainly refers to acquired glaucoma, which includes primary acquired glaucoma and developmental glaucoma accompanied by congenital abnormalities. It is a type of glaucoma caused by abnormal development of the eyeball angle tissue during the embryonic and developmental periods, resulting in obstruction of aqueous humor outflow and increased intraocular pressure. If this disease is discovered, it should be treated promptly.

Juvenile glaucoma is also known as acquired glaucoma. Most patients have abnormal chamber angles at birth, but symptoms and signs may not develop until adolescence. Infants and young children often show photophobia, tearing and blepharospasm. Because the wall of the infants' eyeball is soft, it is easily expanded by pressure, resulting in abnormal enlargement of the eyeball, also commonly known as "watery eyes". Therefore, if infants and young children have photophobia, tearing and blepharospasm, abnormal enlargement of the eyeball or the black of the eye becomes gray, they should go to the hospital in time for treatment and maintain useful vision.

How to treat glaucoma in children:

1. The main treatment is surgery, which includes trabeculotomy, goniotomy, trabeculectomy, aqueous humor drainage device, ciliary body destruction surgery, etc. For individuals with early glaucoma, goniotomy is often used under the condition of clear cornea. If the cornea is not clear enough, trabeculotomy can be used.

2. If the above surgeries fail, trabeculectomy can be an option. The above are all traditional surgical methods. If the treatment effect is not good, the operation can be repeated many times. When these conservative surgical methods cannot solve the problem, you can also consider making an aqueous humor drainage device. For early glaucoma, only ciliary body destruction surgery can be performed.

The above is the editor’s introduction on how to treat glaucoma in children. There are many ways to treat glaucoma. If children in our lives do some prevention against glaucoma, the occurrence of this disease will be greatly reduced. If you have any questions, you can go to the hospital to consult an ophthalmologist. Finally, I hope everyone is healthy and safe!