Dr. Benjamin Phillips is an ophthalmologist with BayCare Clinic. He joined us on Wisconsin Tonight to talk about Glaucoma Awareness Month.
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that gradually erases vision, often without warning. By the time most people notice, damage to the optic nerve has caused vision loss. This is a condition that often takes decades to cause vision loss. It can sometimes be inherited, but it's most often due to aging.
High fluid pressure inside your eye causes glaucoma. This happens when the liquid in the front part of the eye doesn’t circulate properly. Normally, the fluid flows out of your eye through a mesh-like channel. If this channel gets blocked, the liquid builds up. That leads to glaucoma.
More than three million people in the United States have glaucoma and another 1.2 million Americans are expected to be affected by glaucoma by 2030, according to the National Eye Institute. That’s why it’s necessary to create greater awareness of this sight-stealing disease.
It mostly affects adults over 40, but young adults, children, and even infants can have it. African-Americans are more at risk. You’re more likely to get it if you:
* Are of African-American, Irish, Russian, Japanese, Hispanic, Inuit, or Scandinavian descent
* Are over 40
* Have a family history of glaucoma
* Have poor vision
* Have diabetes
* Take certain steroid medications, like prednisone
* Have had trauma to the eye or eyes
Your eye doctor will use drops to dilate your pupils. Then he or she will test your vision and examine your eyes. Your doctor will do a test called tonometry to check
your eye pressure. He or she also will do a visual field test, if necessary, to figure out whether you've lost your side, or peripheral, vision.
Most people don’t have any. The first sign is often a loss of peripheral, or side, vision. If you have any of the following symptoms, seek immediate medical care:
* Seeing halos around lights
* Vision loss
* Redness in the eye
* Eye that looks hazy
* Nausea or vomiting
* Eye pain
* Tunnel vision
Nerve damage and vision loss resulting from glaucoma cannot be reversed. However, glaucoma can usually be controlled with help from an ophthalmologist. The objective of treatment is to lower eye pressure. There are three treatment methods available: eye drops, laser treatment, and surgery. These days, fewer patients require surgery, thanks to early detection and intervention.
Without treatment, people with glaucoma will slowly lose their peripheral, or side, vision. As glaucoma remains untreated, people may miss objects to the side and out of the corner of their eye. They seem to be looking through a tunnel. Over time, blindness will occur.
There are no forms of prevention, but if you diagnose and treat it early, you can control the disease.
For more information call BayCare Clinic Eye Specialists at 877-462-9465.
