Glaucoma surgery is generally done only after drops or laser have failed to reduce the pressure or when visual field progression is occuring despite apparently normal pressures. Some patients have surgery because they are intolerant of drops.

Surgery usually means a trabeculectomy, which is what we commonly do in Maidstone Eye Practice. For patients with complex secondary glaucoma, a tube or shunt procedure may be done. We need to do this so rarely (once every 5 years or so) that these patients are referred onto tertiary referral centres who perform this surgery more often.