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It has ceased to be a disease of seniors, more and more often it reaches the age of forty. I am talking about glaucoma, which is too rarely detected in Poland. It has 65 million people in the world, 700 in our country. Half of them do not know it, and untreated glaucoma leads to blindness. Check what this disease is and whether it also threatens you.
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1/ 8 The causes of glaucoma
Unfortunately, all the causes of glaucoma are still unknown. We do know for sure that it can be caused by increased above normal pressure in the eyeball, blood circulation disorders or genetic tendencies. There are also patients whose blood pressure is within the normal range. And although glaucoma most often affects people in their sixties, a large group of patients are young and professionally active people.
2/ 8 What Is Glaucoma?
It is a disease of the optic nerve that carries impulses from the eye to the brain. This nerve is made up of over a million microscopic filaments, or neurons. In glaucoma, they gradually, slowly degenerate and disappear.
3/ 8 Symptoms can go unnoticed
For years, the patient does not know that he has a problem. At this time, the so-called “Empty places” – professionally called scotomas. Since everything happens very slowly, the cerebral cortex gets us used to the lack of them. In the late stages of the disease, the defects become very large and make everyday functioning difficult, and eventually complete and irreversible blindness may occur.
4/ 8 Primary glaucoma
The disease runs secretly, without pain attacks, and often the only symptom is scotoma in the field of view. The intraocular pressure is moderately elevated and the eye looks normal on the outside. Gradually, there is a loss of visual field and vision impairment. Often the disease is diagnosed by an ophthalmologist during a periodic examination or selection of glasses. Treatment of primary open-angle glaucoma requires regularity on the part of the patient, urgent compliance with medical recommendations and timely reporting for follow-up examinations. Many different drugs are used in conservative treatment. If they do not help, then a laser treatment or surgery is necessary. If the disease is neglected, it usually leads to blindness.
5/ 8 Secondary glaucoma
Secondary glaucoma is a consequence of another disease or its treatment. It happens that it is a complication after long-term steroid use, it accompanies cancer, or it appears after an eye injury.
6/ 8 Angle-closure glaucoma
This type of glaucoma develops in people who close the channel where the watery fluid flows from the eye. If the channel is completely closed, the so-called an acute attack of glaucoma, accompanied by: very high pressure in the eye, headache, irritability of the eyeball, nausea and vomiting. In the event of an acute attack of glaucoma, you should immediately see a doctor or the emergency room.
7/ 8 Treatment
Glaucoma can be treated in several ways depending on the severity and type of glaucoma. The main treatment is the use of eye drops. They lower the pressure in the eye in two ways: by inhibiting the secretion of aqueous humor or by increasing the flow of fluid so that it can drain freely. Glaucoma drops are powerful drugs and have many side effects, including: allergies, conjunctival redness, severe burning and eye irritation, blurred vision. Surgical treatment is the last resort and consists in allowing the aqueous humor to drain out of the anterior chamber of the eye.
8/ 8 How often do you visit an ophthalmologist?
Follow-up visits to the doctor once a year or two are very important because the symptoms of glaucoma are in many cases weak and ignored. It is worth contacting a doctor when the following symptoms appear: halos around light sources, visual impairment, eye redness, blurry iris (especially in newborns), nausea or vomiting, eye pain, narrowing of the field of vision (called tunnel vision).