Glaucoma is a very common eye condition, estimated to affect as many as three million adults in the United States alone. It occurs when the level of pressure inside the eyes becomes great enough to cause damage to the optic nerve. This is the main nerve which is responsible for receiving light from the eyes and transmitting it as messages to the brain to tell us what we can see. There are two types of glaucoma, with open-angle being the most common, while closed-angle is rare. Despite the symptoms for open-angle glaucoma seeming mild, the condition is serious as any vision that is lost is permanent and while there are treatments to prevent further deterioration of your eyesight, any blindness that has occurred is irreversible.

 

Diagnosing Glaucoma

Regular annual eye exams are crucial for the detection of glaucoma. This is because, in the vast majority of cases, glaucoma develops very slowly, making the changes that are the key symptoms of the condition difficult to spot. However, when you attend your comprehensive eye exams, your eye doctor will be able to monitor changes to your eyes, enabling early detection of glaucoma before it can have a significant impact on your vision. Nevertheless, it’s important to still be aware of the signs of glaucoma.

Open-angle glaucoma, which is by far the most common variety of the condition, causes:

• The gradual loss of peripheral vision
• Blurred vision
• Seeing rainbow-colored circles around lights

Closed-angle glaucoma, which is rare and very serious, causes much more obvious symptoms and these usually come on suddenly. These include:

• Severe eye pain

• Nausea/vomiting

• Red eyes

• Blurred vision

• Headaches/migraine

If you experience any of the symptoms of closed-angle glaucoma, it’s important that you visit your eye doctor for an assessment as soon as possible.

The diagnostic process for glaucoma involves a number of different tests, which your eye doctor can carry out in a single appointment. These will look at the level of pressure within your eyes, the shape and color of the optic nerve to make sure that there are no visible abnormalities, and a test that assesses how wide your field of vision is. Other tests may look at the thickness of your cornea (which can affect intraocular pressure) and a special exam, called a gonioscopy, which helps to establish which type of glaucoma you have.

 

Treating Glaucoma

The treatment that you are recommended will depend on the type of glaucoma that you have. If you have slow-developing glaucoma you will likely be prescribed eye drops or oral medication.

Eyedrops: there are multiple types of eye drops that can be used to treat glaucoma, but they are all designed to lower and control the level of pressure within your eyes. You’ll be given specific instructions as to how often these should be administered, and your eye doctor will want to evaluate you on a regular basis to check that they are effective in lowering your eye pressure.

Oral medications: if eyedrops aren’t reducing your eye pressure quickly or successfully enough, you may be prescribed oral medication to bring the pressure down. This treatment is also given to patients with closed-angle glaucoma.

If you have acute/closed-angle glaucoma, you are likely to be referred for laser treatment or a type of surgery called a trabeculectomy.

Laser surgery for glaucoma: this is a fast and effective way of lowering intraocular pressure and works by opening up the drainage channels within the eyes so that the excess fluid can drain quickly. This surgery is performed using a local anesthetic.

Trabeculectomy: this surgical procedure is also performed under local anesthetic, and targets removing blockages within the drainage system of the eyes, in order to reduce the pressure.

If you have questions about glaucoma, don’t hesitate to speak to our friendly and dedicated eye care team in Laguna Niguel CA by calling (949) 518-0055.