Glaucoma is a disease that damages the optic nerve. If the optic nerve is diseased, vision will gradually disappear.
There are different types of glaucoma, and there are several ways to treat glaucoma. Fortunately, early detection and treatment of glaucoma can usually save sight, allowing you to enjoy life to the fullest.
To understand how glaucoma can affect your vision, it is important to understand how the eye sees. In a healthy eye, there is a clear fluid called aqueous humour. This fluid circulates in the front compartment of the eye. To continue to have a stable eye pressure, your eye continually produces a certain amount of aqueous humour. The same amount of aqueous humour is simultaneously discharged in the anterior chamber (angle) through a network of small pores, called the trabeculum.
If you have open angle glaucoma, it means there is a problem at the level of the drainage system of the trabeculum. This increases the pressure, which also causes a mechanical pressure at the back of the eye near the optic nerve. This causes damage to the large number of nerve fibres that run through the optic nerve.
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The most common form of glaucoma is called chronic open angle glaucoma. This condition occurs when the drainage of aqueous humour in front of the eye gradually becomes less efficient. Important to know is that your eye is completely independent of your blood pressure, and that your eye pressure is not something that is affected by stress.
Another less common form of glaucoma is closed angle glaucoma. This form of glaucoma is caused when the drainage of aqueous humour in front of the eye is completely discontinued. The iris is pushed forward, fully blocking the anterior chamber angle. Especially patients of Asian origin or people who are very farsighted, have a higher risk of being affected by this condition.
The treatment for these two types of glaucoma, chronic open angle glaucoma and closed angle glaucoma, consists of the eye pressure being reduced in both cases.
The first step in the treatment of glaucoma is early detection. One of the problems of glaucoma, especially in chronic open angle glaucoma is the insidious onset of the condition. There are absolutely no signs and no subjective symptoms as to when the disease will occur. This is one reason why it is imperative to have regular routine eye examinations, especially from the age of 45 years onwards.
Verlies van het zicht ten gevolge van glaucoom kan meestal voorkomen worden, vooral wanneer de aanwezigheid van chronisch openhoekglaucoom tijdig wordt ontdekt en gediagnosticeerd. Gelukkig zijn er verschillende manieren waarop we glaucoom kunnen behandelen. Ondanks het feit dat de medische of chirurgische behandeling van glaucoom in sommige gevallen bijwerkingen kan vertonen, zullen deze bijwerkingen steeds worden afgenomen tegen de nadelen die u ondervindt wanneer het chronisch openhoekglaucoom niet behandeld zou worden. Dit laatste kan immers het verlies van uw zicht als gevolg hebben. Wanneer u een groter risico vertoont op de aanwezigheid van chronisch openhoekglaucoom, aarzel dan niet om uw oogarts op regelmatige tijdstippen te consulteren. Wanneer u reeds werd gediagnosticeerd bij de aanwezigheid van chronisch openhoekglaucoom, vereist dit een werkelijk teamwork tussen u en uw arts. Uw oogarts zal u de juiste medicatie voorschrijven, doch het is ook belangrijk dat u uw deel van de taak uitvoert, namelijk het minutieus indruppelen en opvolgen van de richtlijnen. Wanneer u op de juiste manier glaucoom behandelt, zal de kans veel groter zijn dat glaucoom u niet kan verhinderen te genieten van de wondere wereld rondom u.