Glaucoma is one of the major causes of blindness that occurs due to optic nerve damage. High level of pressure inside the eye can damage the nerve of your eyes permanently leading to loss of vision. Vision loss will be slow and gradual that many times people may fail to notice it until it reaches advance stage. The only way to prevent this damage is to get your eyes checked regularly if you are above 45 or if you are diabetic. For many people, glaucoma will not show any symptoms except gradual loss of vision. Glaucoma is hereditary and if left untreated it can cause permanent loss of vision.
Symptoms :
There are two main categories of glaucoma namely open angle or primary glaucoma and angle closure glaucoma. Both the types would show symptoms like gradual loss of vision and tunnel vision. Some people may feel eye pain, visual disturbance, blurred vision and formation of halos around light. Advanced stage of diabetes or cataract can also cause glaucoma. Sudden eye injury can cause inflammation of eyes leading to intraocular pressure. If you are diabetic or if you have family history of glaucoma, go for regular eye checkups.
Causes Of Glaucoma :
Intraocular pressure build-up inside the eyes is the major cause for glaucoma. Under normal condition, eyes are surrounded by special fluid known as aqueous humor. This fluid flows from your eyes through filter like channels. But when these channels are blocked excess of fluid gets build up inside the eyes causing intraocular pressure. What exactly causes this block is not known.
Sometime, the blood vessels of your eye may get blocked causing optical nerve damage. Normally glaucoma develops in both the eyes but extent of damage may differ. In some people, iris would bulge forward which in turn would block the drainage of fluids formed in that area. This causes angle closure glaucoma building up intraocular pressure. For some cases, optic nerve gets damaged without any known cause causing normal tension glaucoma. In rare cases, infants are born with glaucoma and they develop optical nerve damage within few years of birth.