Steroid ointment

[Margo88]

Hi, I had laser surgery 2 weeks ago for open angle glaucoma. Pressures are 23 in left eye and 28 in right. Went for post op visit today and pressures still the same. Consultant has put this down to a steroid ointment I was using post op until yesterday. Anyone else experience the same as this has confused me

[Hidden]

Hi. I wasn't given steroid drops or ointment after laser treatment, which didn't work anyway. However I did have steroid drops for 6 weeks following goniotomy for the glaucoma at a later date. This did result in my pressure staying high until I stopped using them. They were necessary to prevent post-op inflammation. Once I stopped using them my pressure came down to 16 from 34.

[Floaters]

my doc told me it requires 6 to 8 weeks for IOP to be lowered after SLT. Just be patient.

[Beecalmed]

Hi Margo88!

Well no, not with steroids but it occurred to me that my consultant did make a change to procedure between the SLT I had in each of my eyes. The second time around with SLT he requested that I wasn’t given an anti inflammatory post op, in my case an NSAID (Ketoralac).

The first eye had disappointing results and he speculated that the reason may be that the required inflammatory response was reduced too much in my case by the NSAID. In addition the department doing the op did the SLT in two half’s, also to reduce the chance of an IOP spike. Both these things are done to avoid a spike in IOP due to inflammation post op. In my case they worked a little too well and possibly prevented the SLT doing its job.

So SLT in my second eye was done in one session and with no post drops. I was slightly anxious about this. However, it worked okay as when I went for my post up check this time the hospital were very pleased with the drop in my IOPs (left: 18 down to 16 and right: staying steady at 16) and no sign of further retinal bleeds, so I’m back to just 6 mth checks.

Could it be the steroids did too good a job and dampened down the required inflammatory response of your SLT too?

I pay to have a private session at a glaucoma clinic where I have all my scans re done and I go through them in detail with more time to discuss with my doctor and this time reassuringly there is no progression at all in my scans and my IOPs are sticking resolutely at 16 and no retinal bleeds. I still have to take 3 drops a day but it appears the SLT has delayed me having to have a Trab. So I’m a very, very happy bunny at the moment.

Not exactly your situation but thought I’d share for information.

I always feel the need to say at this point that I’m diagnosed as POAG but that overtime the suggestion is I have signs of NTG. No bleeds, progression and IOPs down to 16 is very very very promising for me. 🙂

I wish you well too! 🤞🏻