Glaucoma, A thief of the eye.
Hello steemians,
I hope you all enjoyed my previous post which was based on "skin cancer" if you haven't checked on it yet, no doubt you are missing a lot.
Today we will be taking a look at most of the things you need to know about glaucoma. This includes the reason why you need not to wait for the signs and symptoms before going for an eye test. Glaucoma has been the leading cause of why most people go blind, due to lack or little knowledge about about the disease. Most get to know about it at the very crucial stage, when blindness is irreversible. This prompted me to write this post.
At the end of this post I hope you all will be able to:
know what glaucoma is all about
types of glaucoma
signs and symptoms of glaucoma
it's prevention and treatments
WHAT IS GLAUCOMA?
)
Glaucoma is seen as a group of eye condition
whereby the optic nerve is damaged.This is as a result of the extra fluid that builds up at the front part of the eye causing pressure in one's eye. The damaged optic nerve then causes blurry, misty or even patchy vision.
Glaucoma is regarded as the leading cause of blindness for people with the age of 60 years and above. It's often regarded as “a thief of the eye” as any vision lost to glaucoma cannot be recovered, but the blindness from glaucoma can be prevented by early diagnosis, eye test and treatments.
Signs of glaucoma rarely show up at the early stage,the only way to detect if one has glaucoma at a very early stage, is to get yourself checked up.
Types of glaucoma
primary open angle glaucoma
Angle closure glaucoma
primary open glaucoma
)
source
In most glaucoma cases of the (POAD) the following takes place.
The signs and damages caused are not noticed
Vision loss develops gradually and has a life long condition
slow clogging of the drainage canals which causes increased high pressure.
)
Angle closure glaucoma
It's regarded less common than the primary open angle glaucoma. The angle closure also known as the acute glaucoma, come as a result of the closing of the angle between the iris and the cornea, which then causes the aqueous not being able to drain properly. This then causes the eye pressure to rise very quickly
In Most cases of the (ACG) the following takes place:
Develops very fast
Requires fast medical attention
Signs and symptoms are a bit noticeable
It's sudden rise in intraocular pressure is caused by blocked drainage canals.
Other minor types of glaucoma includes :
Congenital glaucoma
Normal tension glaucoma
Congenital glaucoma
Which occurs during the prenatal period whereby the eyes drainage canals are incompletely or incorrectly developed.
Normal tension glaucoma
In this type, the eye pressure is not very high, but the optical nerve is said to be damaged.
Signs and symptoms of the primary open angle glaucoma :
There are no signs and symptoms for the (POAD) at the early stage, this is due to the gradual damage, and also the silent nature of the disease. Irreversible amounts of optic nerve might have been damaged by the time one begin to notice vision loss, which is usually at a late stage. This is why screening for the disease at the early point is considered important. Also,
the signs are not considered outward as they can only be seen using specialized instruments during an eye test.
Signs and symptoms of the angle closure glaucoma :
The symptoms of the angle closure glaucoma occurs very fast and sudden, this is due to the fact that the rise in pressure is sudden.
It's signs and symptoms includes :
* The person begins to nauseate and vomit.)
- Eye Pain: it's regarded as the first symptom and reason why one should seek the help of an optician. It's often accompanied sometimes with an headache or toothache. Seeing halos around light or having a blurry vision which Is as a result of the swollen cornea.
)
Prevention of glaucoma
Since the disease is silent, slow and destructive there are no major ways for the prevention of the disease . The only way the disease can be prevented is to recognise it at the early stage and then treat with necessary medications, before it causes irreversible vision loss.
Also, people who are at a very high risk of getting glaucoma, need not to wait for the signs before going for a eye test.
Below are the groups with a very high risk of developing glaucoma
People who are over the age of 60
African Americans
Relations who have glaucoma
Eye injury
Hypertension.
Treatments for glaucoma.
Eye drops : eye drops are used to either reduce and control the building of fluids at the front part of the eye or used to increase it out flow
Laser therapy : it's used to stop the fluid blockage for those diagnosed with angle closure and also help increase flow of fluid in the eye for those diagnosed with the open angle glaucoma
Microsurgery: a procedure whereby the optician eases the eye pressure by creating a channel to drain the excess fluid.
CONCLUSION:
a vision lost to glaucoma might not be reversible but with early diagnosis and adequate treatments, Glaucoma can be prevented.
Thanks for going through
REFERENCES
2.(signs and symptoms of the (POAG)
3.signs and symptoms of the (ACG)
if you write STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) related posts, consider joining #steemSTEM on discord here. If you are from Nigeria, you may want to include the #stemng tag in your post. You can visit this blog by @stemng for more details. You can also check this blog post by @steemstem here and this guidelines here for help on how to be a member of @steemstem. Please also check this blog post from @steemstem on proper use of images devoid of copyright issues here
Proper attribution of your images is necessary for this post to meet up with steemstem quality.
Ok. thank you, and I really appreciate your time
People who liked this post also liked:
SATURDAY NIGHT WITH ZIZY: EPISODE 1 by @zizymena