Do you know enough about glaucoma?

Glaucoma is a dramatic illustration of the importance of regular checkups. When detected early, in most cases, treatment can prevent damage; undetected, it remains a top cause of preventable blindness and is the second most common cause (after cataracts) of vision loss.

• After age 40, two in every 100 people have some form of glaucoma; tens of millions of people are affected globally.
• The term glaucoma actually covers a group of eye conditions in which there is damage to the optic nerve that conveys messages from the retina to the brain.
• The cause is usually a rise in pressure in the fluid contained in the eyeball (known as the intraocular pressure) due to the blockage of tiny drainage channels in the anterior chamber of the eye — the compartment in front of the lens.
• The risk of glaucoma increases with age; it affects about one in twenty people over the age of 75.
• Women are at higher risk than men, and if there is a family history of glaucoma or if you are of African origin, your risk is up to four times as great as people who are not in these groups.
• Other risk factors include being shortsighted or longsighted, and having high blood pressure or diabetes.

• Most types of glaucoma affect both eyes, cause no pain and have no other obvious symptoms to begin with.
• As the pressure in the eye increases, it starts to damage the fibres of the optic nerve, but again, vision loss is so gradual that it is almost imperceptible.
• Amazingly, we can lose 40 per cent of our vision before we detect any real changes.
• But by then the nerve damage is irreversible and that vision is lost for good. If it goes untreated, glaucoma eventually leads to tunnel vision.