Glaucoma - The Eye Disease

I am going to focus on glaucoma which is the disease of the eye that damage your eye optic nerve. This is important for all of us. I had a great talk last week with my colleague on glaucoma. It’s a blinding disease it is the second leading cause of blindness in US. It is estimated that 2.2 million Americans have Glaucoma but only half of these are aware they are suffering from it.

Glaucoma is a chronic disease and can potentially cause of blindness if it is not detected early that damages your eye optic nerve.

When glaucoma happens then it does not have any symptoms so that is why it’s important for everybody over the age of 40 to examine regularly. So it detect the pressure of eye is high enough, which is one of the way it can be detected. If the optic nerve is affected by the high pressure then it stops working and that is how it leads to blindness.

If somebody detected when half of the optic nerve has already been destroyed then we can treat it to lower the pressure and control the condition but it already affects the half of optic nerve which cannot be restored. However it is still important for the treatment to rest of the optic nerve.

Glaucoma can be treated by

•   Eye Drops
•  Laser Surgery
• Glaucoma surgery

 If there is narrow anterior chamber angle which is potentially at the risk of angle closure then a preventive laser treatment called Laser iridotomy. If we do identify patients who are at the risk of angle closure we recommend them laser iridotomy.

If the pressure of the eye is not controlled in time then it can also lead to blindness.

Are you worried about your eyes? Contact top optometrist eye doctor for a consultation.