Introduction
Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of permanent blindness in the world, affecting more than two million Americans, and more than one hundred million people worldwide. It is a disease of the optic nerve, which is the nerve that connects your eye to your brain. Glaucoma takes away its victim’s sight slowly, but relentlessly, and in most cases, without any warning. Visual damage from glaucoma is irreversible and permanent. Blindness from glaucoma, however, can be prevented with proper preventive eye care. There are laser treatments that are effective in the treatment of glaucoma as well, and these treatments are discussed below.
Different Types of Glaucoma
The most common type of glaucoma is
open-angle glaucoma
. Open-angle glaucoma means that there is no visible obstruction to the drainage area inside the eye. It is thought that there may be an invisible obstruction to fluid drainage in the trabecular meshwork, which is the structure in the eye that drains the fluid. This type of glaucoma typically causes no symptoms until the damage and visual loss is very advanced.
Narrow-angle glaucoma
, less common than open-angle glaucoma, involves a narrowing of the drainage area of the eye. This narrowing is caused because the iris of the eye moves closer to the drainage area in predisposed individuals. If the iris moves so close that it closes the drainage area, then the intraocular pressure increases, and narrow-angle glaucoma is the result. This type of gla...
Copyright 2009 NBC Health
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