What the eye doesn’t see
GLAUCOMA: DISEASE IS A MAJOR CAUSE OF BLINDNESS WORLDWIDE
If diagnosed early, permanent vision loss can be prevented.
Glaucoma is a disease that affects pressure within the eye, damaging the optic nerve. This leads to peripheral visual loss. Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide, and 4 in 50 South Africans over the age of 40 suffer from it. It usually does not produce symptoms until vision is already severely damaged.
But if diagnosed early, the disease can be controlled and permanent vision loss can be prevented.
Glaucoma usually happens when fluid builds up in the front part of your eye. That extra fluid increases the pressure, damaging the optic nerve. Glaucoma may be inherited and may not show up until later in life. The increased pressure, called intraocular pressure, can damage the optic nerve, which transmits images to your brain. If the damage continues, glaucoma can lead to permanent vision loss. Without treatment, glaucoma can cause blindness within a few years.
Most people with glaucoma have no early symptoms or pain. You need to see your eye doctor regularly so she can diagnose and treat glaucoma before longterm visual loss happens. If you are over 40 and have a family history of the disease, you should get a complete eye exam from an ophthalmologist every two years. If you have health problems like diabetes or a family history of glaucoma, you may need to go more often.
Causs
Glaucoma is the result of high fluid pressure inside your eye. This happens when the liquid in the front part of the eye doesn’t circulate the way it should.
Normally, the fluid, called aqueous humor, flows out of your eye through a mesh-like channel. If this channel gets blocked, the liquid builds up. That is what causes glaucoma. The reason for the blockage is unknown, but doctors do know it can be inherited.
Less common causes include a blunt or chemical injury to your eye, severe eye infection, blocked blood vessels inside the eye, and inflammation. It does happen that sometimes eye surgery to correct another condition can bring it on. It usually affects both eyes, but it may be worse in one than the other.
Types:
Open-angle glaucoma: This is the most common type. Your doctor may also call it wide-angle glaucoma. The drain structure in your eye looks normal, but fluid does not flow out like it should. Angle-closure glaucoma: You may also hear it called acute or chronic angle-closure or narrow-angle glaucoma. Your eye does not drain right because the angle between your iris and cornea is too narrow. Your iris is in the way. This can cause a sudden build-up of pressure in your eye. It is also linked to farsightedness and cataracts.
Risk factors
It mostly affects adults over 40, but young adults, children, and even infants can have it. African-Americans tend to get it more often, when they’re younger, and with greater vision loss.
You’re more likely to get it if you:
Are over 40
Have a family history of glaucoma
Have poor vision
Have diabetes
Take certain steroid medications, like prednisone
Have had trauma to the eye
Symptoms
Most people do not have any symptoms. The first sign is often a loss of peripheral, or side, vision. That can go unnoticed until late in the disease. That is why glaucoma is often called the “sneak thief of vision.”
Detecting glaucoma early is one reason you should have a complete exam with an eye specialist every two years. Occasionally, pressure inside the eye can rise to severe levels. In these cases, you may have sudden eye pain, headache, blurred vision, or the appearance of halos around lights. If you have any of the following symptoms, seek immediate medical care: Seeing halos around lights Vision loss
Redness in the eye
Eye that looks hazy (particularly in infants)
Nausea or vomiting
Eye pain
Tunnel vision