What is glaucoma?
This is a very good question. You’re first impulse may be to say that “glaucoma is high eye pressure.” This is not entirely accurate. There are many people out there with ocular hypertension who don’t have any eye damage. A more accurate description of glaucoma might be “glaucoma is gradual death of the optic nerve, often associated with high intraocular pressure.”
We are not entirely sure why the ganglion nerve fibers that comprise the optic nerve die off in glaucoma. There are many theories, including vascular (high pressure decreases nerve perfusion), mechanical (pressure at the optic nerve causes axoplasmic flow to back up) and neuroprotective.
There are also many associations with glaucoma despite high intraocular pressure, such as race, family history, age, and central corneal thickness. What we DO know is that eye pressure is the only factor that we can effect, and so controlling eye pressure is the mainstay of our treatment.
what is the factors that causes Glaucoma apart from general a genetic factors.?what is the seviority of this ?
n what is the treatment can be provided 2 such a patient?
Dipal,
You ask a very general question. The factors that “cause” glaucoma are multivariable and not entirely understood. All we have are risk factors, based upon epidemiologic studies and a few landmark clinical trials. Certainly family history (genetics) is one of the risk factors found.
As for treatment … the only treatment for chronic open angle glaucoma is to decrease eye pressure. Read the glaucoma chapter for more information about this common eye condition.
3 important findings on…. Optic disc ratio, high IOP and abnormal AVF …. Dx of Glaucoma….