Diagnosis And Treatment Of Glaucoma

A patient complaining of blurred vision, rainbow-colored circles around bright lights, eye and head pain accompanied by nausea, and sudden loss of vision (GRF, 2012) can all signal glaucoma, so educating patients to get treatment as early as possible to avoid further damage is imperative. When working with patients diagnosed with glaucoma it is crucial for a PTA to keep in mind that balance can be an issue because of impaired vision so keeping them safe from falls during exercise is vital, and it may be necessary to use tactile cues in addition to verbal

I am indecisive on what occupation I would like to pursue in. I have many ideas on what I would like to become. Optometrist, optometrist assistant, something to do with law, forensic scientist, or becoming a business owner are my main top occupations I consider. For now, an occupation I would consider and enjoy is to become an optometrist or an optometrist assistant. I’ve always been fascinated by the nervous system, particularly with the optic nerves. I want to help people who aren’t able to see clearly or help them with any problem they have with their eyes. I have glaucoma and I tested for the disease for a year until I was officially diagnosed. There are two types of Glaucoma, Open-angle glaucoma, which is what I have is the type where

Glaucoma is a common and important health problem. It is one of the leading causes of blindness in Western Society (Hoskins & Kass, 1989). It is responsible for ten percent of all blindness in the United States and continues to be the second or third most common cause of blindness in the world (Bunce, Fraser, & Wormald, 1999). It is estimated that two million people in the United States have been diagnosed as having glaucoma. Glaucoma is known to affect about two percent of Caucasians beginning at the age of 40 with an increasing risk for those over the age of 60. This risk is especially high if a member of the family has glaucoma or diabetes. Further, there is a higher risk of a glaucoma diagnosis for African Americans

How does the progression of optic nerve and RGC damage translate to the clinical symptoms of glaucoma? In a study published by Harwerth and Quigley in 2006, the structure-function relationships of human glaucoma and experimental glaucoma in monkeys are compared, in order to discern a possible correlation between the progressive loss of visual field experienced by glaucoma patients and the gradual neural losses. Previous studies had suggested a large amount of variance between the well-defined relationship of experimental glaucoma and the slightly different system of clinical glaucoma, but the discrepancies could have equally resulted from different methods of data analysis, which would affect the precision of the results. The study compared

Glaucoma is several conditions of the eye that damage the optic nerve, which is vital to perfect vision. This damage is caused due to an abnormally high pressure in your eye. Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness in the United States. It can happen at any age but is most common in older adults. If you lose your vision due to glaucoma, it is not possible to gain it back. It is important to get regular eye appointments because if glaucoma is caught early, the loss of vision can be slowed or prevented. There are two types of glaucoma. Open-angle glaucoma and acute angle-closure glaucoma. The symptoms for these two are very different. Open-angle glaucoma symptoms include patchy blind spots in your central or side vision,

Glaucoma is a disease that damages the optic nerve because of extra fluid increasing pressure in the eye (Boyd). It is also the leading cause of blindness if left untreated in people over sixty Boyd states. Varieties of options are available for treatment regarding glaucoma and all are intended to lower the blood pressure and protect optic nerve (Radhakrishan and Iwach). Glaucoma can be treated with eye drops, pills, and surgery or a combination of these methods. (“Treating Glaucoma”). Right now eye drops are the first choice of treatment because they lower eye pressure, helping fluid drain better or decreasing fluid made by the eye (Radhakrishan and Iwach). As is states in the article “Treating Glaucoma” when eye drops cannot control the glaucoma,

This depends on how early or late patients are willing to receive a diagnosis from ophthalmologists. In early treatments, glaucoma is not curable, but there are methods to control its progression or to prevent the increased risk of blindness. What ophthalmologists aim for in treating this disease is decreasing intraocular pressure in one’s eye. Determined by the condition the patients are in, “options may include eye drops, laser treatment, or surgery.” The Prevent Blindness America Organization plays an extensive role in projecting awareness for glaucoma and in helping those to fight against it. They “conduct mass glaucoma screenings” and list possible medications such as beta-blockers and carbonic anhydrase inhibitors. These are used to decrease the quantity of aqueous fluid in the eye (Marks and Montauredes

American Glaucoma Society states the definition of Glaucoma, “Glaucoma is a disease of the optic nerve that can result in vision loss and blindness” (Jampel). Glaucoma being a disease that could cause eye loss it is a disease that cannot be taken lightly and people want to find a treatment to help their case as soon as possible. With medical

Growing up, I was witness to an uncle of mine who progressively lost his eyesight. I saw a perfectly healthy man, slowly being plunged into a world of darkness. It was difficult to understand how someone could lose their eyesight and with it lose so much more. As I grew older, I learnt his vision loss, which had caused permanent blindness, was due to a condition called Glaucoma. Being a victim of a curious mind, I tried to research and understand this condition which affects the eye. It was then when that spark of interest in the anatomy of the human eye and the conditions and many pathologies which affect it, arose inside of me.

Macular Degeneration is the most common irreversible central vision loss problem in people over 60 in the United States.

"Glaucoma is a condition that causes damage to your eye's optic nerve and gets worse over time". (WebMD) Glaucoma is interlinked with the pressure in the eye. No one knows the exact cause of the glaucoma. Doctors think the main cause of the glaucoma is the pressure in the eye. Some people with the normal eye pressure also suffer with glaucoma. There are different kinds of glaucoma such as open angle glaucoma, Angle closure glaucoma, Normal tension glaucoma, Congenital and infantile glaucoma, and secondary glaucoma’s. Beta–adrenergic blockers and prostaglandins are the most frequently used topical medications at present.

Visual field loss in glaucoma is the result of damage to the RGCs. Bipolar cells synapse with several different types of RGCs, and it is believed that each type of RGC completely covers the field of vision. Some RGC types may be more damaged in glaucoma than other types, leading to the idea that visual stimuli preferentially detected by RGC types which are most likely to be damaged in glaucoma would be able to detect glaucoma at its earliest stages. The three types of ganglion cells are

In relation to the patient’s scenario, glaucoma may be related to their corneal thickness due to the fact that corneal thickness is important because it can mask an accurate reading of eye pressure, causing doctors to treat you for a condition that may not really exist or to treat you unnecessarily when are normal. Actual IOP may be underestimated in patients with thinner corneal thickness, and overestimated in patients with thicker corneal thickness. [12]. Having normal corneal thickness and abnormal C/D ratios would still alter the patient’s vision. The C/D ratio is the cup to disc ratio of the optic nerve head, which is noted vertically and horizontally. The normal range for a white male is mentioned to be roughly 0.35/0.35 with variation

Optic disc pallor develops, primarily involving the papillomacular bundle and nasal retinal fibers, in a band (bow –tie) pattern that spares the inferior and superior portion of the optic disc. Absence of disc pallor one cannot rule out chiasmal disorder since pallor may take weeks to develop. Like, subtle optic disc pallor may be difficult to distinguish, even in patients with obvious visual field defects. RNFL imaging modalities, including scanning laser polarimetry, have shown mixed results in attempts to detect this pattern of RNFL loss in patients with chiasmal lesions 9

Right now, although there is no way to prevent glaucoma, there are many successful treatments available to prevent the blindness caused by glaucoma. Because the gradual vision loss of chronic glaucoma may not be noticed until it is too late, regular eye examinations, dilated exams of the optic nerve, and screening tests of the visual field are essential for all persons aged 40 and older, especially is your family has a history of glaucoma.