Glaucoma features, causes, symptoms, etc. Why does it happen, how do you know?

Glaucoma is a disease that can damage vision due to increased pressure inside the eye.  This may be related to eye aging, genetic factors, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.  Glaucoma may have no symptoms or only minimal symptoms in the early stages, so regular eye exams are important.  In this post, we will look at the general information about glaucoma, including its characteristics, causes, symptoms, and treatment.  I hope this will be of great help to those who are interested.

Glaucoma features, causes, symptoms, etc. Why does it happen, how do you know?

References

• March 14, 2024 Korea’s Health Chosun
• Korea's Segye Ilbo, March 10, 2024
• Financial news in Korea, March 6, 2024

 

What is glaucoma?

• A disease in which optic nerve function is impaired due to pressure on the optic nerve or blood supply disruption (Optic nerve: The nerve that transmits visual information detected by the retina to the brain through a small passage behind the eye)
• One of the three major blindness diseases along with diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration.

Glaucoma Features

• Difficult to recognize due to lack of clear symptoms in the early stages
• A condition in which vision becomes blurred only when it reaches blindness
• Once it worsens, it is difficult to restore vision even with treatment (early detection is important)
• There is a common misconception that if you develop the disease, you will inevitably go blind.  However, if detected early and treated appropriately, blindness does not occur.
• If you have a chronic disease (high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.), high myopia, very high myopia, or a family history of glaucoma, you need a detailed glaucoma examination on a regular basis.

 

Current status of glaucoma

• The number of glaucoma patients in Korea will exceed 1 million by 2021.
• The proportion of elderly population is high.  Recently, the number of young patients has increased due to increased use of smartphones, high myopia, diabetes, etc.

Glaucoma Causes

• The cause of glaucoma is not yet clear.
• In general, it is assumed that there is a high correlation between increased intraocular pressure and aging.
• If there is an abnormality in the aqueous humor outlet, an imbalance occurs in the production and discharge of aqueous humor, causing an increase in intraocular pressure (aqueous humor: a liquid produced to maintain the shape of the eye and supply nutrients to the cornea and lens, and drains through the outlet).
• The volume of the eye is small compared to the lens, so the aqueous humor outflow channel is blocked, leading to increased intraocular pressure (the lens often becomes thicker with age).  Causes acute angle-closure glaucoma (commonly occurs in middle-aged women).
• When fibrovascular tissue due to diabetic complications covers the trabecular meshwork, intraocular pressure increases.
• Even if chronic eye inflammation called uveitis occurs, the trabecular meshwork is damaged and intraocular pressure increases.
• Depending on the person, optic nerve damage may occur even if the intraocular pressure is within the normal range (especially in Northeast Asia, including Korea, the proportion of patients who develop glaucoma even when the intraocular pressure is not high is high)
• Adult diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes are also risk factors.
• When the front and back of the eye become longer due to axial myopia, the optic nerve is pulled, increasing the risk of glaucoma.

 

Glaucoma Symptoms

• Early symptoms of glaucoma are often not felt.
• Accompanied by headache and nausea (easily mistaken for brain disease; if treatment is delayed, it can lead to blindness in a short period of time)
• They can't see well from their peripheral vision.
• It gradually expands to the center of the field of vision and appears as black as a hazy fog in the final stages of glaucoma.
• Symptoms appear very slowly over a long period of time and are recognized only after the disease has progressed to a certain extent.
• Painful, blurry eyes, difficulty focusing, and sudden loss of focus on objects

 

Glaucoma treatment

• When diagnosing glaucoma, intraocular pressure and visual field confirmation tests are performed.
• Through examination, check the shape of the optic nerve, optic nerve fiber layer, and whether there is damage to the optic nerve.
• It is important to preserve the optic nerve by lowering intraocular pressure.
• Initially, drug treatment is administered to prevent further damage to the optic nerve.
• In acute cases, instillation of eye drops or intraocular pressure lowering medication to lower intraocular pressure
• Even in chronic cases, drug treatment such as intraocular pressure lowering drugs is performed.
• After intraocular pressure goes down, laser treatment assists the circulation of aqueous humor in the eye.
• After intraocular pressure is normalized, a visual field test is performed to check for vision damage.
• If intraocular pressure does not fall sufficiently even with medication or laser treatment, glaucoma surgery is performed.

In this post, we looked at the general information about glaucoma, including its characteristics, causes, symptoms, and treatment.  It is important to detect glaucoma early and receive appropriate treatment.  Please monitor your symptoms regularly and, if necessary, consult an ophthalmologist to respond appropriately.