Glaucoma, the sneak thief of sight.
Having recently completed further study including a detailed case report of a patient with Glaucoma I wanted to share with you how easily you can lose your sight without being aware of any loss until it’s too late. However, this can be easily remedied.
Glaucoma is an eye condition that is the leading cause of world-wide irreversible blindness. Risk factors for glaucoma include having a relative with glaucoma which increases your lifetime risk of developing glaucoma from 2-3% which is normal to 22%. Older age and being short sighted also increases your risk.
It is important to have regular eye examinations, usually at least every 2 years in order to measure your eye pressures and to have a detailed examination of your eyes including your optic nerves where all your nerves collect, and diminish as glaucoma progresses. Retinal imaging is extremely useful in determining subtle changes in your retinas which will assist early glaucoma diagnosis. Visual field testing which assesses your peripheral vision is also important to determine whether any subtle losses have occurred. All these examinations can be done at The Eyecare Spot.
You may ask about my patient, the subject of my case report, he was diagnosed early with no functional vision loss and treated for glaucoma with therapeutic eye-drops which can be prescribed at The Eyecare spot, co-managed with a local ophthalmologist. This patient avoided early vision loss and has a great prognosis.
We look forward to seeing you for an eye examination as regular eye care is key to great vision for life and we endeavour to be The Spot for all your Eyecare.
References
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Weinreb RN, Aung T, Medeiros FA. The pathophysiology and treatment of glaucoma, a review. The Journal of the American Medical Association 2014 May; 311(18): 1901-1911.
Wolfs RC, Klaver CC, Ramrattan RS, van Duijn CM, Hofman A, de Jong PT. Genetic risk of primary open angle glaucoma. Population based familial aggregation study. Archives of Ophthalmology 1998; 116(12): 1640-1645.
Le A, Mukesh BN, McCarty CA, Taylor HR. Risk factors associated with the incidence of openangle glaucoma: The visual impairment project. Investigative ophthalmology & visual science 2003 Sep; 44(9): 3783-3789.
Mitchell P, Hourihan F, Sandbach J, Jin Wang J. The relationship between glaucoma and myopia: The Blue Mountains eye study. Ophthalmology 1999 Oct; 106(10): 2010-2015.
