Patients who do not regularly take their glaucoma medication are at high risk for blindness. If you have problems taking your medications or sticking to the dosing regimen, talk with your doctor.

Hints for Managing a Regimen.

• Pharmaceutical manufacturers use colored tops, yellow for timolol, for example, and green for pilocarpine, to help prevent mix-ups. Creating a chart scheduling each drug by color can be helpful.
• Small electronic timers are available that will signal times for taking the medications. The timing of these combinations is important.
• Some patients may be candidates for single medications that combine two drugs, such as Cosopt, which contains both dorzolamide and timolol. This medication requires only one drop twice per day. Patients who need additional glaucoma drugs, however, will need to take these two drugs separately.
• When using any drug for a long period of time, side effects are a potential problem. If they become intolerable, patients should discuss with the doctor reducing the dosage or trying other drugs.

Administering Eye Drops. A common reason that glaucoma medicine does not work is that patients do not take it correctly. Patients should ask the ophthalmologist to watch while they place the drops in their own eyes to make sure they are doing it correctly. The following are some recommended steps:

• If you use both ointments and eye drops, take the eye drops first.
• Wash your hands before applying eye drops.
• Hold the bottle upside down.
• Tilt your head back and, with one hand, pull the lower eyelid down to form a pocket.
• With your other hand, hold the bottle as close as possible to your eye. Don’t let the bottle directly touch your eye or eyelid.
• After you have placed the drop, close your eye or press your index finger against the corner of the eye near your nose. Gently move the lower lid upward until the eye is closed. Keep your eye closed for at least 1 minute. This prevents the drop from draining out.
• Wait at least 5 minutes before applying another drop or a different medication

Drug Therapy for Acute Closed-Angle Glaucoma

Acute closed-angle glaucoma is an emergency situation. Doctors may administer a combination of two or more medications to reduce eye pressure quickly before it can damage the optic nerve and cause visual loss. Apraclonidine (Iopidine) is a powerful drug used before and after laser surgery to prevent an increase in fluid pressure and is more effective than other medications. In addition to standard drugs, doctors may also administer glycerin (Glyrol, Osmoglyn) by mouth or mannitol or acetazolamide intravenously. Surgery is almost always performed once the pressure is reduced.

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Review Date: 06/23/2010
Reviewed By: Harvey Simon, MD, Editor-in-Chief, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)