Glaucoma

Glaucoma-Silent thief of your vision

World Glaucoma Week March 08-14,2015

Are you aware of it? If not, its time to get to know a few things about this ocular ailment before it takes off your vision permanently.Yes! Glaucoma, which is related to the optic nerve pressure in your eyes, can take your vision , which can not be restored by medication at the later stages.

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!