Glaucoma

What is glaucoma?

Glaucoma is an eye disease that can damage your optic nerve. The optic nerve supplies visual information to your brain from your eyes. Glaucoma is usually, but not always, the result of abnormally high pressure inside your eye. Over time, the increased pressure can erode your optic nerve tissue, which may lead to vision loss or even blindness.

Who is at risk?

Risk factors include history of diabetes, eye injury or family history of glaucoma. If you have any of these then you must visit a doctor and have your eye checked regularly.

Types of glaucoma

The most common type of glaucoma is primary open-angle glaucoma. It has no signs or symptoms except gradual vision loss.

• Acute-angle closure glaucoma: which is also known as narrow-angle glaucoma, is a medical emergency. It may present with: severe eye pain, nausea, vomiting, redness in your eye, sudden vision disturbances, seeing colored rings around lights, sudden blurred vision
• Congenital Glaucoma: Children born with congenital glaucoma have a defect in the angle of their eye, which slows or prevents normal fluid drainage.
• Secondary Glaucoma: Secondary glaucoma is often a side effect of injury or another eye condition, such as cataracts or eye tumors.

What are some myths about glaucoma?

Congenital glaucoma is treatable and children with visual challenges should not be neglected. However if treatment is not started early, it may lead to blindness. It is not true that once surgery is performed on the eyes one will eventually go blind. Also, becoming blind is not a normal part of aging.

How Is glaucoma treated?

The goal of glaucoma treatment is to reduce pressure within the eyes to stop (intraocular pressure, IOP) any additional eyesight loss. Typically, your doctor will begin treatment with prescription eye drops. If these don’t work or more advanced treatment is needed, your doctor may suggest one of the following treatments:

Medications

Several medicines designed to reduce IOP are available. These medicines are available in the form of eye drops or pills, but the drops are more common. Your doctor may prescribe one or a combination of these.

Surgery

If a blocked or slow channel is causing increased IOP, your doctor may suggest surgery to make a drainage path for fluid or destroy tissues that are responsible for the increased fluid.

Treatment for angle-closure glaucoma is different. This type of glaucoma is a medical emergency and requires immediate treatment to reduce eye pressure as quickly as possible. Medicines are usually attempted first, to reverse the angle closure, but this may be unsuccessful. A laser procedure called laser peripheral iridotomy may also be performed. This procedure creates small holes in your iris to allow for increased fluid movement.