Glaucoma 101 – HealthyWomen

What’s glaucoma?

Glaucoma is a situation that impacts the eyes. About 3 million individuals within the U.S. have glaucoma.

Usually, glaucoma happens as a result of there’s elevated stress inside the attention. The additional stress can injury the optic nerve over time and trigger you to steadily lose your imaginative and prescient.

Your eye is stuffed with a transparent fluid known as aqueous humor. In a wholesome eye, there’s a steadiness between fluid being made and fluid draining from the attention by way of its drainage system. When fluid builds up and isn’t being drained appropriately, the stress in your eye can construct. This will injury the optic nerve fibers within the eye, which may result in imaginative and prescient loss. Untreated, glaucoma can result in blindness.

There are a number of varieties of glaucoma, however the two principal varieties are major open-angle glaucoma and angle-closure glaucoma. Main open angle glaucoma normally has no signs and imaginative and prescient loss is gradual over time. Angle-closure glaucoma may be acute, and related to ache and imaginative and prescient modifications. Virtually all glaucoma varieties contain elevated eye stress. However, in uncommon situations, glaucoma can happen regardless of “regular” stress readings inside the attention.

Who’s in danger for glaucoma?

Your probabilities of creating glaucoma enhance if in case you have sure elements, resembling:

• Being over age 60
• Being of African, Asian or Hispanic descent
• Having a household historical past of glaucoma
• Having elevated eye stress or skinny corneas
• Being nearsighted or farsighted
• Having sure medical situations, together with diabetes, hypertension and coronary heart illness
• Taking steroid medicines long-term
• Having had an eye fixed harm

Why are girls extra prone to get glaucoma?

Due to their longer life expectancy, girls account for six out of 10 glaucoma circumstances within the U.S. Along with age being an element, estrogen may additionally play a job.

Analysis means that declining estrogen ranges at an earlier age, resembling early menopause, may trigger the optic nerve to age sooner than regular. This growing older would possibly go away the nerve extra prone to be broken by glaucoma. One current research discovered that elevated ranges of estrogen would possibly gradual the event of glaucoma.

What are the signs of glaucoma?

Signs rely on which sort of glaucoma you’ve gotten.

Open-angle glaucoma:
Open-angle glaucoma doesn’t normally trigger any signs, which is why half of these with this kind of glaucoma don’t even know they’ve it. Nonetheless, because the situation worsens, you would possibly discover blind spots in your peripheral (facet) imaginative and prescient.

Angle-closure glaucoma:
Angle-closure glaucoma happens when there was a sudden blockage to the attention drainage system. This causes stress to construct up rapidly within the eye. Initially, you could have delicate signs resembling blurry imaginative and prescient, seeing halos or eye ache. These must be addressed immediately. An acute angle-closure glaucoma assault is a medical emergency and may result in everlasting blindness if not handled.

How does glaucoma get recognized?

To get a prognosis of glaucoma, you will have to see an ophthalmologist, a health care provider who makes a speciality of eye illnesses, for an eye fixed examination. The ophthalmologist will collect data and carry out a number of exams, which could embrace:

• Asking questions on your loved ones historical past
• Checking your imaginative and prescient, together with utilizing perimetry to your peripheral imaginative and prescient
• Measuring the stress in your eye utilizing tonometry
• Performing a pachymetry take a look at to measure the thickness of your cornea
• Utilizing ophthalmoscopy to look at your eyes for optic nerve injury
• Performing gonioscopy to see how open the realm of the attention that drains fluid is

How is glaucoma handled?

There isn’t a remedy for glaucoma, which is why having common eye exams is vital to catch any issues rapidly. Getting correct therapy might help cease the development of injury from glaucoma.

Prescription eye drops

Glaucoma medicine normally entails eye drops. These medicines work by lowering eye stress and defending the optic nerve from injury. They’ll’t enhance your imaginative and prescient, however they will work to maintain your glaucoma from getting worse and stop additional imaginative and prescient loss.

You may need uncomfortable side effects from the drops, together with purple, itching or stinging eyes; blurry imaginative and prescient; or perhaps a change in your eye coloration. Don’t cease taking the drops with out speaking along with your healthcare supplier (HCP).

Laser therapy

A therapy known as laser trabeculoplasty makes use of a laser beam to assist drain the fluid from the attention. This therapy is normally carried out for open-angle glaucoma. The outcomes can final two to a few years, so that you may need to repeat the process sooner or later.

For individuals who have angle-closure glaucoma, a laser iridotomy process makes use of a laser to make a small gap within the iris to assist fluid drain extra successfully.

Surgical procedure

Surgical procedure could also be wanted if medicines and laser remedies aren’t serving to.

Trabeculectomy entails a surgeon making a small gap on prime of the attention. Additional fluid drains from this gap to lower eye stress.

In glaucoma implant surgical procedure, the surgeon locations a tiny tube into the sclera — the white a part of the attention. This drains fluid from the attention and reduces eye stress.

Micro-invasive or minimally invasive glaucoma surgical procedure (MIGS) is a more moderen therapy that works to decrease eye stress however has fewer uncomfortable side effects and dangers, and sooner restoration occasions, than different surgical procedures. It is because it makes use of smaller surgical devices and incisions than in conventional glaucoma surgical procedures. MIGS is most frequently used for individuals with delicate to reasonable open-angle glaucoma. Extra research are being achieved to find out the long-term security and effectiveness of this process.

In case you are involved that you just may need glaucoma or are in danger, speak along with your healthcare supplier. They might help you provide you with a therapy plan that may be just right for you.