Will My Vision Change After Canaloplasty?

It’s important to recognize that the purpose of any glaucoma surgery including canaloplasty is to prevent further loss of vision, not to improve vision. It’s also important to recognize that after any glaucoma surgery including canaloplasty, the vision immediately after surgery, will likely be worse than it was before surgery. In the case of canaloplasty, this is generally because there’s some bleeding inside the eye after surgery. As awful as this sounds, this is actually a good thing. Because bleeding in the eye indicates that the natural drainage canal has been opened and is connected to the venous collector system. Once that blood goes away which generally is within about one or two weeks, the vision should improve. Another thing that can limit vision after surgery, usually temporarily is what we call induced astigmatism, which just requires a new pair of glasses to bring your vision back up to what it was before. The interesting and exciting thing about canaloplasty though, is that once you’ve gotten rid of some, or all of your drops, because your pressure’s lower after surgery, your tear film may improve. And if your tear film improves from lack of using all of those drops, then it may be possible for your vision to be a little clear. That’s one of the more exciting thing about canaloplasty as compared to some of the more traditional surgeries which generally do not result in an improve tear film.