World Glaucoma Day: Know more about the eye disease that can cause vision loss

World Glaucoma Day is observed on March 12 every year across the world. This is an important day that seeks to raise awareness about the group of eye diseases known as glaucoma. The day is part of a week of raising awareness about this disease and ensuring that it is caught early.

Glaucoma is the name of several eye diseases that can cause vision loss by damaging the optic nerve. Often the diseases develop slowly and don’t cause any pain, which makes it easy to ignore till it’s too late.

The blindness caused by glaucoma is irreversible, but if caught early, the disease can be treated and people will not have to endure the difficulties of blindness when it is preventable.

Early detection of glaucoma improves the chances of stopping or at least slowing the disease down with appropriate treatments.

Symptoms

Severe headache

Severe eye pain

Nausea or vomiting

Blurred vision

Patchy blind spots in your side vision

Difficulty seeing things in your central vision

Coloured rings around lights

Eye redness

Causes

While there are some causes of glaucoma that have a sudden onset, most of the time, these diseases develop gradually and can be caught in time to prevent blindness.

The leading cause of glaucoma is a buildup of fluid that causes an increase in pressure in the eye. Glaucoma disease is caused when the aqueous humor — a natural fluid produced by the eye — fails to drain out naturally from the eye.

Usually, the fluid drains out of the eye and is replaced with fresh aqueous humor, which the eye produces constantly. However, if something is wrong with the drainage angle, then the fluid will be retained in the eye, and over time, the fluid buildup will increase the pressure on the optic nerve. The fibers on the optic nerve start dying as a result of the pressure. Over time, all the fibers die, causing total, irreversible blindness.

Glaucoma can’t be prevented, but it’s still important to catch it early so you can begin treatment that will help prevent it from getting worse. The best way to catch any type of glaucoma early is to have an annual preventive eye care appointment.