Pupillary Pathways

In the last two blog posts we discussed details about the key players in glaucoma treatment and management. It is important to note that we sometimes can combine these medications together to increase patient compliance and convenience.

In efforts to wrap up our comprehensive outline of common glaucoma medications, we will discuss a group of less widely used glaucoma medications, miotics, as well as review the combination drugs that are popular and available today!

In the last blog post, we covered first-line glaucoma medications, Prostaglandin analogs, and Beta-blockers. Besides these key players, there are a few more categories of glaucoma medications that surely deserve recognition. Let’s review alpha-2 agonists and carbonic anhydrase inhibitors!

So you’ve completed your entire Glaucoma workup, what’s next? The hardest part about prescribing glaucoma medications is figuring out where to start. With so many drugs available on the market, it can become very overwhelming, especially when you are in a time crunch in between patients.

Though each patient has a different clinical presentation, overall knowledge of the various Glaucoma drug categories and their mechanism-of-action will guide you through this process. 

Here’s a refresher of the two most common first-line glaucoma drugs!

It is important to note that we sometimes can combine these medications together to increase patient compliance and convenience.

In efforts to wrap up our comprehensive outline of common glaucoma medications, today we will discuss a group of less widely used glaucoma medications, miotics, as well as review the combination drugs that are popular and available today!

Most of your patients will tell you that they know a fair amount about LASIK surgery. They’ve researched it, their friends or family members have had it done, they hear ads on the radio for it, etc.

But not everyone who is interested in laser vision correction is a good candidate for LASIK surgery. In some cases, patients may be best served by having PRK (photorefractive keratectomy) instead. Although still widely performed, most people have never even heard of PRK surgery.

LASIK surgery is the most common refractive surgery procedure that patients undergo to correct their vision. It has historically been shown to be a simple and safe alternative to wearing glasses or contact lenses, as long as a patient has been deemed a good candidate.

Even though patient outcomes are very positive in a high percentage of cases post-operatively, it is important to be able to properly handle potential problems that can arise from this type of surgery. Some of these issues are completely normal and expected in the early post-op period, so a little hand-holding and patient education will often be all these patients need, while other undesirable symptoms may require additional treatment.

Here we will review seven of the most common potential complications you may come across when co-managing LASIK patients. 

Answering questions about refractive surgery is something that you’ll do over and over again on a daily basis. If you practice in a primary care setting, you’ll likely have at least a few patients every single day that will ask you about laser vision correction and if you think they might be a good candidate for LASIK surgery.

Most patients have a friend or family member who has had LASIK, and they often know the basics of the procedure since it is so widely done. However, you’ll get a patient here and there who has done a little more research and may inquire about the SMILE procedure.

SMILE stands for Small Incision Lenticule Extraction.

As an optometric physician, you will see many patients every single day. You will find that a lot of your patients do not have a primary care physician that they see on a regular basis, or have not been to their primary care doctor for a physical examination in several years.

You may actually be the only doctor that your patient sees regularly or has been to in quite some time. Therefore, we have a responsibility to our patients to ensure that their overall general health needs and concerns are being met.

Take a few extra minutes during your exam to do a thorough case history and identify any risk factors for health conditions that may be undiagnosed or poorly managed.

Diabetes mellitus should be one of the conditions that we feel comfortable talking to our patients about.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved a new oral medication for blood glucose management in adult patients with type 2 diabetes. Manufactured by Novo Nordisk, Rybelsus^® (semaglutide) is the first drug in a class of medications known as GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide) inhibitors that do not need to be injected.

This is very exciting news in that many patients with type 2 diabetes are not able to be adequately managed with oral medications alone, and often need to add injectables into their treatment regimen. Rybelsus^® gives patients a new option for treating their diabetes without potentially needing to go down that path. Below we will outline the important factors you should know about this new medication.

Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic disorders that is defined by the inability of the body to produce or respond to the hormone insulin. This can be the result of either defective insulin secretion, or target cell receptor resistance.

No matter the cause, this disorder results in imbalanced carbohydrate metabolism and subsequent elevated blood glucose levels. While the bodily processes that lead to the different types of diabetes are distinct, most of the lab tests that are utilized to diagnose diabetes are interchangeable and do not specify which type of the disease is present.

The main tests used to diagnose diabetes mellitus are the fasting plasma glucose test, the oral glucose tolerance test, and the HbA1c test.