Glaucoma

GLAUCOMA is an eye disease which damages the optical nerve by excessive internal eye pressure and makes loosing vision.

It can occur at any age but is more common in older adults and is one of the leading causes of blindness for people over the age of 60.

The causes of Glaucoma are known while some the reason behind are still unknown.

The fluid inside the eye, usually flows out of the eye through a mesh-like channel. If this channel gets blocked, the liquid builds up. The reason behind such a blockage is mainly unknown, but it can be inherited, meaning it’s passed from parents to children.

Less common causes of glaucoma include a blunt or chemical injury to your eye, severe eye infection, blocked blood vessels inside your eye, and inflammatory conditions. It’s rare, but eye surgery to correct another condition can sometimes cause a glaucoma too. It usually affects both eyes, but it may be worse in one than the other.

Many forms of glaucoma have no warning signals and the incrase of the internal eye pressure is may so slowly and so gradual that changes of vision are not noticed until the condition is at an advanced stage; and at this advanced stage vision lost already occured. The sooner a medical treatment begins, the better is the prognosis, but vision lost that already occured before diagnosis can’t be brought back. So it is important to have regular eye examinations that include measurements of your eye pressure, as the meassured eye pressure is a first important signal for the eye doctor to do a diagnosis may in early stages and treat appropriately.

But lowering eye pressure helps to keep the remaining vision.To treat Glaucoma correctly patient have to follow the treatment plan along with regulary eye examinations.

The ophthalmologist will test your vision and than widen (dilate) the pupils with special drops and examine the eye background in detail. They’ll check your optic nerve for signs of glaucoma. May photographs are taken so changes can be detected at the next eye control. Moreover a tonometry test to check eye pressure and a visual field test (to controll for any peripheral vision lost) can be done. All these test are painless and don’t take long.

Treatment ption are in general eye drops, oral medications, laser surgery or microsurgery to lower pressure in your eye.

The signs and symptoms of glaucoma vary depending on the type and stage of your condition. For example:

Open-angle glaucoma

• Patchy blind spots in your side (peripheral) or central vision, frequently in both eyes

• Tunnel vision in the advanced stages

Acute angle-closure glaucoma

• Severe headache

• Eye pain

• Nausea and vomiting

• Blurred vision

• Halos around lights

• Eye redness

If left untreated, glaucoma will eventually cause blindness. Even with treatment, about 15 percent of people with glaucoma become blind in at least one eye within 20 years.

For more details, please get in touch with TALYA MEDICAL CENTER.