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Glaucoma and Your Vision

Glaucoma is a progressive disease that will lead to blindness if left untreated. It is called the silent thief of vision because there are no symptoms associated with the process. You will never know if you have it until it is too late and you have lost significant amounts of vision. However, It can be easily checked during a routine eye exam and if detected, treatment to prevent further damage can be started. The damage that is already present can not be reversed and is a permanent loss. Thats why early detection is the key to preventing damage from glaucoma.

Glaucoma is a disease that causes loss of nerve fibers in the back of the eye due to increased pressure inside of the eye. There are two main types of glaucoma. The first is an acute type of glaucoma that is due to fluid not being able to drain from the eye's drainage mechanism due to physical blockage. This is normally seen in small, far-sighted eyes in which all of the structures inside the eye are crowded together. The structures then cause a physical barrier and the fluid can not drain and the eye pressure goes up. The pressure reaches dangerous levels quickly and prompt treatment is necessary otherwise damage occurs within a day. If you develop this type of glaucoma, you will know it! You will experience severe eye pain and nausea. This type of glaucoma can be detected during an regular eye exam and a laser treatment can be performed to prevent the acute attack from ever occurring. This type of glaucoma is not as common as the next type of glaucoma.

Open angle glaucoma is more common among the general population. It is believed that the damage from this type of glaucoma is due to either over production of fluid or under drainage of fluid which causes increased pressure inside the eye. This increased pressure causes damage to the nerve fiber layer which is responsible for the visual field loss. This process is a slow progressive loss and takes years before large amounts of damage occurs. Treatment for this type of glaucoma typically starts with the use of eye drops which help to lower the pressure. There are several different types of medications and your Doctor can use different combinations of the drops. Since glaucoma is a progressive disease, sometimes more than drops are necessary and then surgery is the next step-either laser or conventional surgery. Both achieve results by increasing the outflow of fluid from the eye.