And keeping patients out of the operating room. With open-angle glaucoma, fluid passes too slowly through a meshwork drain where the cornea meets the iris. During laser surgery, a laser makes multiple applications to the iris inside a patient's eye, opening holes to drain fluid. Clinical studies also are ongoing to determine who is at risk of glaucoma and what early treatment may be necessary. Cataract Cataract removal surgery also has improved with laser applications.
Lasers are another method of breaking up the nucleus of the cataract.
And though, doctors remind, there still is a need to make an incision in the eye, the complications and risks are greatly reduced. The incidence of cataract, a cloudiness in the lens of the eye which progressively reduces visual functioning, increases with age. Phacoemulsification, ultrasound from a machine, helps surgeons break up the lens to be sucked out through a small hole. Retinopathy occurs when diabetes damages tiny blood vessels in the retina. Some sufferers develop macular edema when damaged blood vessels leak fluid on part of the retina called the macula, which lets people see detail.