eyecliniclondon
Trustpilot
book a consultation Tel: 0203 974 4454
Glaucoma

Glaucoma Treatment London

Get in Touch

Trustpilot

Private Glaucoma Treatment in London

Have You Been Diagnosed With Glaucoma — or Told You Are at Risk?

Being diagnosed with glaucoma can feel unsettling. You may have been started on eye drops, advised to “keep monitoring,” or told that surgery might be needed at some point in the future. Many patients arrive with unanswered questions, mixed messages, or a sense of uncertainty about what comes next.

At Eye Clinic London, glaucoma care is led by specialist consultant glaucoma surgeons and supported by advanced diagnostic technology. Our approach focuses on understanding your individual risk, how your optic nerve is behaving over time, and what is genuinely required to protect your vision in the long term.

Whether you are newly diagnosed, concerned about progression, unhappy with your current treatment, or seeking a second opinion, we provide expert-led glaucoma assessment and personalised management in a calm, unhurried environment.

book a glaucoma consultation
Glaucoma Care

Why Choose Eye Clinic London for Glaucoma Care

Have you ever been told your glaucoma is “stable” without really understanding what that means for you — or whether it will still be stable in five or ten years’ time? Many patients feel their appointments focus on numbers and test results, but not on how their individual eyes behave, how their condition may progress, or what the long-term plan actually is. When you’re living with a lifelong condition like glaucoma, that uncertainty can be unsettling.

Glaucoma Care

This is exactly where a personalised approach matters.
At Eye Clinic London, glaucoma care is not based on rigid protocols or isolated measurements. It is built around understanding your individual eyes, how your optic nerve responds to pressure, and how your condition behaves over time. Decisions are made with a long-term view, rather than reacting to single readings or short-term changes.

book a glaucoma consultation
First Appointment

Consultant-Led Care From the First Appointment

From your first visit, you are assessed by a consultant glaucoma specialist who remains involved in your care. This continuity is particularly important in glaucoma, where subtle trends over time often matter more than any single test result.

Having the same specialist oversee your care means:

  • Your anatomy and optic nerve characteristics are understood in detail
  • Results are interpreted in context, not in isolation
  • Decisions are consistent and considered, rather than reactive

You are not moved between clinicians or pathways. Your care is guided by someone who understands glaucoma in depth and follows your condition over time.

Personalised Decision-Making

Personalised Decision-Making for a Lifelong Condition

Glaucoma does not behave the same way in everyone. Some patients remain stable for many years with minimal treatment, while others require earlier or more active intervention despite similar pressure readings.

treatment planning

At Eye Clinic London, treatment planning is personalised by considering:

  • How vulnerable your optic nerve is
  • How your eye anatomy affects pressure and drainage
  • How findings change over time, not just at a single visit
  • How well different treatments are likely to suit you

This allows us to recommend the right treatment at the right time, avoiding both unnecessary intervention and avoidable delay.

What Causes Glaucoma?

Advanced Diagnostics Used to Support

Advanced diagnostic technology plays an important role in glaucoma care, but test results alone do not make decisions. Imaging and visual field tests are used to support clinical judgement — helping to confirm stability, detect early change, and guide treatment planning.

The aim is clarity and confidence, for both the specialist and the patient, so that decisions feel measured, appropriate, and clearly explained.

book a glaucoma consultation

Personalised Decision-Making for a Lifelong Condition

The glaucoma service at Eye Clinic London is led by leading consultant glaucoma specialists, each with extensive senior NHS experience and a strong background in managing glaucoma across its full spectrum — from early disease and glaucoma risk assessment to complex and advanced cases requiring surgery.

At Eye Clinic London our consultants are directly involved in every stage of assessment and decision-making.

Their NHS leadership roles and subspecialist training provide the depth of experience required to manage glaucoma confidently over the long term, particularly where decisions are complex or finely balanced.

This consultant-led structure ensures that care is personalised, evidence-based, and guided by clinical judgement rather than fixed protocols.

Faisal Idrees

Faisal Idrees

Leading Consultant Glaucoma Surgeon

Mr Idrees is a leading consultant glaucoma surgeon with extensive senior NHS experience, specialising in the management of complex and advanced glaucoma. He regularly treats patients with progressing disease, challenging pressure control, and those who have undergone previous glaucoma treatment or surgery.

Faisal Idrees

His clinical expertise spans the full range of glaucoma management, including:

  • medical and laser treatment
  • minimally invasive glaucoma surgery
  • trabeculectomy
  • PreserFlo MicroShunt implantation
  • glaucoma drainage devices

His approach is centred on individualised care, careful surgical decision-making, and achieving durable long-term pressure control while minimising unnecessary intervention.

Pravin Pandey

Pravin Pandey

Leading Consultant Glaucoma Surgeon

Mr Pandey is a leading consultant glaucoma specialist with extensive NHS consultant experience and a strong academic and research background. He has held substantive senior NHS roles and is actively involved in glaucoma research, teaching, and service development.

Pravin Pandey

He brings particular expertise in:

  • Advanced glaucoma diagnostics
  • Long-term monitoring and risk stratification
  • Personalised treatment planning across all stages of disease

His NHS experience and academic involvement support a structured, evidence-based approach to glaucoma care, particularly in cases where careful judgement and timing of intervention are essential.

Together, the leading glaucoma consultants at Eye Clinic London provide specialist, consultant-led care grounded in extensive NHS experience, advanced clinical expertise, and a clear focus on personalised long-term vision preservation.

Glaucoma Treatments

Glaucoma Treatments at Eye Clinic London

Glaucoma treatment is always tailored to you. The right plan depends on the type of glaucoma, the stage, the rate of change, and how your eyes respond to treatment over time. At Eye Clinic London, our goal is to protect your vision long term by choosing the right intervention at the right time — neither delaying when action is needed, nor escalating too early when stability is achievable with simpler steps.

Below is how treatment is typically approached in real clinical scenarios.

eye pressure

If you have raised eye pressure or are “at risk” (ocular hypertension / glaucoma suspect)

Some patients are referred because eye pressure is higher than average, the optic nerve looks suspicious, or there is a strong family history — but there is no clear evidence of optic nerve damage yet.

In this situation, the plan may include:

  • Careful monitoring if risk is low and tests are stable
  • Eye drops if pressure reduction is advisable based on your risk profile
  • Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty (SLT) as an effective early option in suitable patients (especially if you prefer to avoid long-term drops or have difficulty tolerating them)

The key here is risk stratification: the aim is not to treat everyone “just in case,” but to intervene early when the long-term risk justifies it.

progression

If glaucoma is progressing despite drops or SLT (moderate stage / progression)

If test results show progression — for example, worsening visual field or structural change on imaging — the aim becomes more proactive pressure lowering.

Depending on your anatomy and overall suitability, options may include:

  • Optimising or increasing medical therapy (changing drops or adding combination therapy)
  • Repeat or adjunctive SLT in appropriate circumstances
  • Minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS), particularly if combined with cataract surgery, such as: iStent, ABiC (ab interno canaloplasty), GATT (gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy), Endoscopic Cyclophotocoagulation (ECP)

The goal at this stage is to reduce pressure further while balancing safety, recovery time, and long-term burden of treatment.

cataracts

If you have cataracts and glaucoma together

This is a common scenario. Cataract surgery can sometimes reduce eye pressure modestly on its own, but in many patients the best strategy is to treat both problems at the same time.

Depending on your glaucoma stage and anatomy, treatment may include cataract surgery combined with a glaucoma procedure such as:

  • iStent
  • ABiC
  • GATT
  • ECP

This approach can reduce medication burden and improve long-term pressure control, while also addressing vision quality affected by cataract.

fast progressing

If glaucoma is advanced, fast-progressing, or needs lower target pressure

In more advanced glaucoma, the optic nerve has less reserve. The focus is achieving a lower, more stable pressure to reduce the risk of further irreversible loss.

At this stage, more established surgery may be recommended, including:

  • Trabeculectomy
  • PreserFlo MicroShunt
  • Glaucoma drainage devices (GDD/GDI), particularly in complex or high-risk cases or when previous surgery has not achieved sufficient control

These options are not chosen lightly. They are recommended when the clinical benefit of stronger pressure lowering outweighs the risks and when long-term vision preservation requires a more definitive approach.

complex glaucoma

If you have complex glaucoma (previous surgery, inflammation, or high-risk anatomy)

Some patients have glaucoma that is more challenging to manage due to previous procedures, underlying eye conditions, or anatomical factors.

In these cases, management is highly individualised and may involve:

  • tailored medical regimens
  • advanced surgical planning
  • consideration of drainage devices or other appropriate surgical options
  • closer monitoring intervals

This is where specialist consultant-led glaucoma care is particularly important.

The Eye Clinic London approach

The Eye Clinic London approach

Across all scenarios, the goal is the same: protect vision long term using a plan that fits your eye, your anatomy, your disease behaviour, and your tolerance of treatment.

At Eye Clinic London, your plan is guided by leading consultant glaucoma specialists who can offer the full range of options — from careful monitoring and SLT through to MIGS and complex glaucoma surgery — and who will advise what is most appropriate for you at each stage.

Glaucoma FAQs

Proper preparation is essential to ensure the best outcomes from Refractive Lens Exchange (RLE) surgery. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get ready:

1. Will glaucoma make me blind?

Glaucoma can lead to permanent vision loss, but most people diagnosed and managed appropriately do not go blind. The risk of significant vision loss is highest when glaucoma is undiagnosed for a long time, when follow-up is inconsistent, or when the disease is aggressive and not controlled early enough.

What matters most is how early it is detected, how vulnerable your optic nerve is, and whether the treatment plan keeps the condition stable over time. At Eye Clinic London, we focus on identifying your individual risk and setting a treatment strategy designed to protect vision long term, rather than reacting to single test results.

2. I was told my glaucoma is “stable” — what does that actually mean?

“Stable” should mean two things:

  • eye pressure is controlled to a level that is appropriate for your optic nerve, and
  • there is no meaningful evidence of progression on repeated testing over time (imaging and visual fields).

It does not mean glaucoma has gone away. Glaucoma is typically lifelong, and stability has to be confirmed over multiple visits, because individual results can fluctuate. Stability is a trend, not a single appointment outcome.

3. My eye pressure is “normal” — how can I still have glaucoma?

This is more common than most people realise. Eye pressure is a major risk factor, but it is not the only factor. Some optic nerves are simply more vulnerable and can be damaged at pressures that would not harm someone else. This is called normal-tension glaucoma.

That’s why a proper glaucoma assessment doesn’t rely on pressure alone. We look at the optic nerve structure, nerve fibre layers, and visual field function, and we assess change over time. Even in normal-tension glaucoma, lowering pressure further is still the only proven way to reduce the risk of progression.

4. If I have raised eye pressure, does that mean I definitely have glaucoma?

No. Raised pressure (ocular hypertension) means the pressure is higher than average, but it does not automatically mean glaucoma is present. Many people with raised pressure never develop optic nerve damage.

In some patients, observation is appropriate. In others, early treatment (drops or SLT) is recommended to reduce long-term risk.

5. Why do I need so many tests — and why do they keep repeating them?

Because glaucoma is diagnosed and managed by detecting change over time. A single scan or visual field test provides a snapshot, but glaucoma decisions are made based on patterns and trends.

Visual field tests can vary depending on concentration or fatigue. Imaging can show small variations as well. Repeating tests allows your specialist to distinguish normal fluctuation, test variability, true progression that requires action.

This is one of the most important parts of safe glaucoma care.

6. How quickly does glaucoma progress?

Progression is highly individual. Some people remain stable for many years with minimal treatment. Others progress more quickly, even with apparently similar pressures.

This is why treatment is personalised: the “right” pressure for one person may not be safe for another.

7. Will I need eye drops for life?

Not necessarily. Some people remain on drops long term and do very well. Others have difficulty tolerating drops or find adherence challenging (which is common with chronic conditions).

Depending on your glaucoma type and stage, alternatives may include:

  • SLT (which may reduce or replace drops in suitable patients)
  • MIGS procedures (often with cataract surgery) such as iStent, ABiC, GATT, ECP
  • more established surgery if stronger pressure lowering is required

8. Is SLT laser safe — and how long does it last?

SLT is widely used and has a strong safety record in appropriate patients. It is performed without incisions and typically takes only a short time.

The pressure-lowering effect can last for years in some patients, and for a shorter period in others. In certain cases, SLT can be repeated, although repeatability and effectiveness vary.

9. What is the difference between MIGS and trabeculectomy?

MIGS (minimally invasive glaucoma surgery) generally:

  • has a lower surgical burden
  • is commonly used in mild to moderate glaucoma
  • is often combined with cataract surgery
  • may reduce drops but may not achieve very low pressures

Examples include iStent, ABiC, GATT, and ECP.

Trabeculectomy is a more established operation that:

  • can achieve lower pressures
  • is often used in advanced or progressing disease
  • requires closer post-operative follow-up and monitoring

Which is appropriate depends on your stage of disease, anatomy, and the target pressure needed to protect your optic nerve.

10. Can glaucoma affect one eye more than the other?

Yes. It’s common for glaucoma to behave differently in each eye. One eye may remain stable while the other progresses, or one may require more treatment. Each eye is assessed and treated individually.

11. Can lifestyle or stress affect glaucoma?

Lifestyle does not replace treatment. However, general health matters. Regular exercise, managing cardiovascular risk factors, and good adherence to medication can support overall eye health.

If you have specific concerns (e.g., steroids, asthma inhalers, blood pressure medications, sleep apnoea, or migraines), discuss them with your specialist because some factors can influence glaucoma risk or control in certain patients.

Finance & Insurance

Discover affordable eye care through our flexible finance and insurance offerings with expert financial guidance at Eye Clinic London. For comprehensive understanding, please contact us.

Our Location

Strategically located in Devonshire Street, Harley Medical District, Marylebone, in the heart of London, our clinic is easily accessible, ensuring that your journey to exceptional eye care is as convenient as possible. Our central position ensures that you can easily reach us from various parts of the city.

Devonshire street in Marylebone is not just an address; it’s a hub of convenience and accessibility. With excellent transport links and a wealth of amenities nearby, your visit to Eye Clinic London will be convenient and hassle-free experience.

Whether you are a local resident or visiting form other parts of UK or abroad, our location will provide you with seamless connection to the private eye doctor in London.

When choosing to travel by public transport please alight at Bond Street Station and walk for 7 mins, alternatively exit at Oxford Circus station or Baker Street Station and walk for 10 mins.

Street parking is available.

Eye Clinic London 7 Devonshire Street
London, W1W 5DY

The McIndoe Centre Holtye Road East
Grinstead RH19 3EB