World Glaucoma Week 2018

March 11-18^th 2018 marks annual World Glaucoma Week.

This collaborative project between the World Glaucoma Association and the World Glaucoma Patient Association contributes to the elimination of glaucoma blindness by alerting people to have regular eye checks, including optic nerve checks.

The theme this year is Green = Go get your eyes tested for Glaucoma: Save Your Sight!

A wide range of publicity-attracting activities around the world involve ophthalmologists, optometrists and other eye care workers in hospitals, universities, clinics, private practices include many private individuals, especially those with glaucoma or with family members with glaucoma. Glaucoma societies and glaucoma patient associations all participate.

Glaucoma causes progressive damage to the vision; they do so without warning till later in the disease process and while treatment is effective in arresting the disease, it cannot reverse damage already present. The earlier the diagnosis, the less damage done and the more vision there is to save.

Glaucoma is the name for a group of eye conditions in which the optic nerve is damaged at the point where it leaves the eye. This nerve carries information from the light sensitive layer in your eye, the retina, to the brain where it is perceived as a picture.

Overview:

Your eye needs a certain amount of pressure to keep the eyeball in shape so that it can work properly. In some people, the damage is caused by raised eye pressure. Others may have an eye pressure within normal limits but damage occurs because there is a weakness in the optic nerve. In most cases both factors are involved but to a varying extent.

Eye pressure is largely independent of blood pressure.

Glaucoma is a disease that damages the optic nerve, the part of our eye that carries the images we see to our brain. In the healthy eye, a clear liquid circulates in the front portion of the eye. To maintain a constant healthy eye pressure, the eye continually produces a small amount of this fluid and an equal amount which flows out of the eye. If you have glaucoma, the fluid does not flow properly through the drainage system. Fluid pressure in the eye increases and this extra force presses on the optic nerve in the back of the eye, causing damage to the nerve fibres. Glaucoma is an extremely serious eye disorder which can cause blindness if not treated early.

Types of Glaucoma

There are four main types.

Chronic glaucoma: The most common is chronic glaucoma in which the aqueous fluid can get to the drainage channels (open angle) but they slowly become blocked over many years. The eye pressure rises very slowly and there is no pain to show there is a problem, but the field of vision gradually becomes impaired

Acute glaucoma: Acute glaucoma is much less common in western countries. This happens when there is a sudden and more complete blockage to the flow of aqueous fluid to the eye.

Secondary and developmental glaucoma: There are two other main types of glaucoma. When a rise in eye pressure is caused by another eye condition this is called secondary glaucoma. There is also a rare but potentially serious condition in babies called developmental or congenital glaucoma which is caused by malformation in the eye.