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Glaucoma Treatment

By: Alfred Patrick Click author's name for more of his/her articles

Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that are characterized by pressure that is too high for the optic nerve to withstand. The optic nerve is crucial in sight, as it is the nerve that sends all of the images created by the eye to the brain. Given its cruciality, damage to the nerve from glaucoma results first the loss of peripheral vision, and then central vision.

Often, people with glaucoma don’t even realize that they have a problem as there are no obvious symptoms. The eyesight deteriorates so gradually that it is often unnoticed. The only real way of knowing that glaucoma is present is by a physical examination of the eye by a doctor or optometrist who may be able to see the problem by examining the eye with an ophthalmoscope.

Open-angle glaucoma (OAG) is the most common form of glaucoma in the United States and in the United Kingdom. In open-angle glaucoma, the optic nerve is slowly damaged, usually causing gradual loss of vision. Both eyes can be affected at the same time, although one may be affected more than the other.

The problem of the Glaucoma is more in developing countries because of the poverty, ignorance and non-systematic health system. It is estimated that one in every ten patients who visits eye hospital has glaucoma and one in every 100 becomes blind because of glaucoma in these countries.

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Apart from genetic inheritance, other factors that can predispose Glaucoma are Myopia, Diabetes Mellitus, Retinal Vein Occlusion, Hypertension, Intraocular Tumors, Cataract, Accidental and Surgical Trauma and Inflammations in the eye.

There are several types of Glaucoma, the most common type being Chronic Open Angle. There is also a Narrow Angle type which is most common in farsighted patients. Diseases like Diabetes can cause the disorder as well by increasing blood vessel growth into the angle that drains the fluid from the eye. That is most dangerous and is called Neovascular Glaucoma and follows Rubeosis which is blood vessel growth in the iris of the eye.

It is estimated that nearly 67 million people worldwide are affected by this dangerous eye disease, and this is projected to exceed 80 million in the next 10 to 15 years. In the United States, according to 'Prevent Blindness America', more than 3 million people have glaucoma, and only half of them are even aware of it.

A very popular laser surgery technique used for the treatment of glaucoma is called laser trabeculoplasty. This technique uses a highly focused laser beam to cut through the whites of your eye and burn off part of the trabecular meshwork beneath it. This causes the remainder of the trabecular meshwork to expand, in effect, making it less dense and more permeable.

Alarmingly, the exact cause of glaucoma is not well-known. For unknown reasons, blockage of the passages (through which eye fluid flows) within the eye leads to increased pressure on the optic nerve as well as the retinal ganglion cells.