Glaucoma-Silent thief of your vision
World
Glaucoma Week March 08-14,2015
Glaucoma is
broadly categorized into two forms: Open angle glaucoma and closed angle
glaucoma.
Symptoms:
Open angle
glaucoma is painless and does not have significant symtoms, the only signs are
gradually progressive vision loss.
However,
closed angle glaucoma follows with acute ocular pain , seeing halos around lights,
red eye and very high intraocular pressure, nausea and vomiting with suddenly
decreased vision.
Causes:
Positive
family history is a risk factor for glaucoma, and its main cause is ocular
hypertension , i.e., increased pressure in the optic nerves.
Risk Factor:
Glaucoma can
permanently damage vision in the affected eye(s), first by decreasing
peripheral vision , eventually leading to blindness if left untreated.
Diagnosis:
Your ophthalmologist
has a number of tools to detect whether or not you have glaucoma in your eye ,
even before you have any symptoms, like tonometer, pachymeter,visual field
test, ophthalmology etc.
When to see
a doctor:
In most of
the cases glaucoma in detected in people over the age of 40, hence if you have
a family history in glaucoma , it is must to see a doctor after the age of 40 ,
even if you don’t have the symptoms .And even if you don’t have a history, see
a doctor if your vision is deteriorating.
Treatment:
Once the
vision is lost , it cant be restored with any treatment in case of glaucoma,
however you can stop this ocular disorder in its tracks before the vision
impairment, with proper medication or surgery. Most common methods of treatment
involves, eye drops, pills, surgical procedures , laser surgery .
Stay Alert, Stay
Fit!
