56 EyeWorld Asia-Pacific | March 2025 GLAUCOMA by Ellen Stodola, Editorial Co-Director Helping Glaucoma Patients Understand Their Disease And Treatment Options When it comes to treating glaucoma, educating the patient about their disease is a crucial step. In addition to finding an appropriate treatment plan, it’s important for the patient to understand the nature of their disease, which can often be hard because physicians are helping them control their disease, rather than cure it. Alan L. Robin, MD, and Jullia Rosdahl, MD, PhD, discussed how they help patients understand glaucoma and how testing and treatment options play into the discussion. Dr. Rosdahl said that because she is a glaucoma specialist, most patients that come to her have an idea that they either have glaucoma or are at risk for it. “It surprises me, though, how even some long-standing patients don’t realize that they have a glaucoma diagnosis, even my own patients,” she said. “Glaucoma is tough to understand.” First, Dr. Rosdahl said you need to find out where the patient is, what they already understand about glaucoma and their condition, and what their concerns and fears are. Testing is very helpful, she said. “Patients for the most part do understand eye pressure and the need to lower eye pressure,” she said. “The visual field testing and optic nerve imaging (OCT) are helpful, too, especially when there has been a change over time. When patients see those changes on the testing, they understand that their glaucoma is getting worse even if they don’t notice the change symptomatically.” Dr. Rosdahl said the hardest thing is to explain that vision won’t be getting better with the treatments, and they are only working to preserve the sight they have. “Often, even when patients understand this before surgery, they are hoping/expecting to have improved vision afterward,” she said. “It is a conversation to have multiple times and as gently as possible, especially if someone has advanced glaucoma and a lot of vision loss already.” Determining what the patient understands about the disease and developing trust are crucial, according to Dr. Robin. Source: Alan Robin, MD
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