Glaucoma Symptoms and Signs Do You Know What They Are?

Glaucoma often is called the silent thief of sight because its lack of symptoms makes it such an insidious Eye Disease.

Glaucoma is a condition in which the optic nerve is damaged.

Damage to these nerve fibers can cause blind spots and total blindness if the disease is not treated and the optic nerve becomes completely destroyed.

More than 1 million Americans are fortunate to have had their Glaucoma diagnosed early.

The disease can then be treated, and Loss of Vision possible prevented.

According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, however, about 80,000 people in the United States are blind due to Glaucoma, and another million are at risk for blindness because they are unaware of their glaucoma.

Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of preventable blindness, and the single most common cause of blindness among African Americans.

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The most common type of Glaucoma is Open Angle Glaucoma.

It occurs when pressure within the eye, called intraocular pressure, builds up and cause damage to the optic nerve.

Intraocular pressure builds up when aqueous humor, the clear liquid within the eye, is prevented from draining properly.

In a healthy eye, the liquid drains off and replenishes it self.

If it cant drain, if backs up and causes pressure within the eye to increase.

Glaucoma Symptoms for the chronic open-angle form, are a gradual loss of peripheral vision, leading to tunnel vision.

During later, emergency stages, Glaucoma symptoms include extreme pain, Blurred Vision , Conjunctivitis (pink eye, an infection of the eye), and fixed and dilated pupils.

Another Glaucoma Symptom is persistent elevation of inner eye pressure due to cupping of the optic disc (the part of the eye where the optic nerve enters the eyeball).

The other basic form of the disease, Closed Angle Glaucoma also is caused by a problem with the drainage of the aqueous humor.

The blockage to closed angle Glaucoma occurs when the area into which the fluid drains is physically blocked.

This type of glaucoma also is called narrow angle glaucoma or angle closure glaucoma.

Symptoms for the acute closed-angle form, include severe throbbing pain in the eye (usually only one eye) with very Blurry Vision; a moderately fixed and dilated pupil, which does not respond to light appropriately; and increased IOP, often on one side of the eye. Nausea and vomiting are also common.

Glaucoma is a puzzling disease.

Some people who have elevated eye pressure also called ocular hypertension, never experience damage to their optic nerve.

And, there are some people with normal intraocular pressure who suffer damage to their optic nerve, regardless.

That condition is an unusual kind of glaucoma called normortensive glaucoma or normal pressure glaucoma.

Blind spots can occur gradually, usually starting in the peripheral vision.

By the time a person suffering from glaucoma notices the spots, the damage to the nerve has already been done.

One type of glaucoma - Acute Closed Angel Glaucoma – comes on suddenly and has noticeable Symptoms.

Intraocular pressure rises rapidly often causing acute eye pain.

This condition is an emergency and should be treated immediately.

The eye may become red and painful, and the patient may experience nausea.

Other glaucoma symptoms include

• Blurred Vision
• Appearance of halos or rainbows around lights
• Headache

Glaucoma is more prevalent in African Americans that in Caucasians.

In rare cases, children develop glaucoma, beginning in infancy, childhood, or adolescence.

Congenital glaucoma usually appears shortly after birth but sometimes later in the first year of life.

Congenital glaucoma often has noticeable Glaucoma Symptoms, such as tearing, cloudiness of the Cornea, and sensitivity to light.

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