Glaucoma

An introduction to common eye problems and their management is given below. These are based on patient education pamphlets used in our hospital. Please click on the links to read the matter

What is glaucoma?

Glaucoma refers to a group of disease that can damage the eyes optic nerve and result in blindness. (The optic nerve connects the light sensitive tissue at the back of the eye, with the brain). Open angle glaucoma is the most common form of glaucoma, but unfortunately half of the people with this condition do not know they have it. It has no symptoms at first. But over the years it can steal your sight. With early treatment, you can often protect your eyes against serious vision loss and blindness.

Who are at risk?

  • People with family history of glaucoma
  • Diabetics
  • Myopes i.e. Short sighted individuals
  • Everyone over the age of 60.

What are the symptoms of glaucoma?

At first, open angle glaucoma has no symptoms. Vision stays normal, and there is no pain. As glaucoma remains untreated, people may notice that although they can see things clearly in front of them, they miss objects to the side and out of the corner of their eye. It looks as if they are looking through a tunnel. Over time, the remaining central vision may decrease until there is no vision left.

How is glaucoma detected?

High pressure puts you at risk for glaucoma. But high pressure alone does not mean that you have glaucoma. Whether or not one develops glaucoma depends on the level of pressure that the persons optic nerve can tolerate without being damaged. This level varies from person to person. Infact even with pressure within the normal range of 1221 mm Hg a person can develop glaucoma.

To detect glaucoma your doctor will do the following tests:

  • Record your vision
  • Pupil dilation and evaluation of the inside of the eye. This is done after dilating or widening the pupils. After examination the vision may remain blurred for several hours.
  • Measure the pressure inside the eye by gently touching the eye with an instrument

How and when is glaucoma treated?

Treatment can often control glaucoma. This makes early diagnosis and treatment important to protect your sight. You will need to use the drops and pills as long as they help to control your eye pressure. This is very important because glaucoma often has no symptoms; people maybe tempted to stop or may forget to take their medicine. Once diagnosed with glaucoma medicines must be taken according to doctors instructions and pressure and field must be monitored closely.

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