WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF GLAUCOMA
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According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in the world there are 55 million people with glaucoma. The glaucoma represents the second cause of blindness and the first with irreversible nature. It is estimated that in Italy the glaucoma affects one million people of which only half of them knows it. The eye doctor, Dr Pierluigi Piccoli of Clinica San Francesco explained to us what it is all about, the symptoms and suggested treatments.
What is glaucoma and how does manifest itself?
The definition gathers a set of eye diseases that have in common the progressive damage of optic nerve, able to determine changes of visual field until blindness. In most cases the disease is practically asymptomatic and this particularly dangerous, may be diagnosed just by an eye examination that must be carried out regularly from 40 years of age.
What are the risk factors?
The main risk factor is certainly the high intraocular pressure, but does not detect in itself the disease, then there are the familiarity, myopia, diabetes, other eye diseases, arterial hypotension that provokes a reduced perfusion of fibers and the age. Indeed, the probability of glaucoma increases with aging.
Are there different types of glaucoma?
The most common form is the open-angle glaucoma, asymptomatic. But in 20% of cases this is closed-angle glaucoma, that is a form with clear symptoms as pain, reduction of visual acuity and serious general discomfort. Other more rare forms are the normal pressure and secondary glaucoma.
What treatments are indicated?
The aim of treatment is to stop or at least slow down the progression of damage: the lost function, unfortunately, is not recoverable, the glaucomatous damage is not reversible and for this reason the prevention is essential. The intervention is on intraocular pressure and initial therapy is medical, indeed one or more eye drops to instill one or more times a day are prescribed and if the therapy is scrupulously respected the damaged is significantly reduced. Is possible to enrich the therapy also with neuroprotectors. It even possible to carry out laser treatments as iridotomy and trabeculoplasty, and in more complex cases with surgery.
