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Friday, January 18, 2008

Glaucoma Awareness Month

January is National Glaucoma Awareness Month, a time to learn about this eye disease that causes blindness. Only cataracts cause blindness more often than glaucoma.

Glaucoma is a quiet condition that creeps up slowly. You would not notice it at first. If you seldom have your eyes checked, it could progress quite far before being discovered. It consists of increased pressure inside the eye. The eye is filled with fluid, and there are tiny drainage holes in the inside corners of the eyes to allow it to leave the eye as it is refreshed, thus keeping the pressure constant.

In glaucoma, the small drainage holes known as the puncta become blocked or constricted. Fluid thus builds up, causing intraocular pressure to build up. The result is damage to the optic nerve.

The optic nerve

This is a large nerve running from the retina at the back of the eye, to the vision center in the brain. It carries information which the retina has received in the light entering the eyes, and has converted from light energy to neural energy. When optic nerve fibers are destroyed, they do not grow back and cannot be replaced. You can see a good diagram of the eye on our How the Eye Works page.

Blood flow to the optic nerve is also involved, and ophthalmologists are continually learning more about how and why glaucoma develops, and how to treat it. The important thing is to catch it early.

If you have any family history of glaucoma, be careful to have your eyes checked every year.

posted by JennyK at 4:59 PM

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