What is the treatment of Grave's disease?
First of all the thyroid status is determined and is treated accordingly, based on whether the thyroid hormone levels are high or normal or even low. The treatment for the eye condition depends upon the severity of the disease as well as the stage of the disease. The patient may need one or a combination of the following treatment options:
Cool compresses, sunglasses, lubricating eyedrops, or raising your head at night
• Medications or radiation to shrink tissues
• Orbital decompression surgery
• Prisms for your glasses
• Eye muscle surgery, eyelid surgery, or both
Is surgery also required?
Depending upon the condition of the eyes, the ophthalmologist may advise a surgery. The following surgeries are done for this condition:
Orbital decompression surgery: In this surgery, the bone between the orbit (the cavity holding the eyeball) and the surrounding sinuses (air spaces next to the orbit) is removed. This provides more space to the swollen tissues behind the eye and thus decreases the protrusion of eyeballs and also the pressure on the optic nerve.
Eye muscle surgery: The involvement of the muscles of the eyes may lead to misalignment of the eyes and thus lead to double vision. If the prisms in the glasses can not relieve the symptoms, surgery may be required. This surgery aims to correct the misalignment by operating on the muscles of the eye. The aim is to give single vision in the straight-ahead gaze and the downgaze (as for reading). It may require more than one surgery to properly align the eyes. This surgery is undertaken only after the misalignment has been constant and is not changing.
Eyelid surgery: In Graves' ophthalmopathy the eyelids open more widely. The surgery on eyelids is undertaken to correct this defect.
If the eye requires all these three surgeries, the sequence is orbital decompression, eye muscle surgery and then eyelid surgery.
Tags:
Grave's disease
