Glaucoma is an eye disease in which the pressure inside the eye is intermittently or continuously elevated. Persistent high intraocular pressure can cause damage to all parts of the eye and visual function, and if left untreated, the visual field can be completely lost and lead to blindness. Glaucoma is one of the three major blinding eye diseases that cause blindness in humans, with a prevalence of 1% in the total population and 2% after the age of 45.
Glaucoma is clinically classified into three main categories.
1, primary glaucoma.
2, secondary glaucoma.
3, congenital glaucoma.
In clinical work, many glaucoma cases have completely lost their vision when they come to our clinic, and since the damage of glaucoma to vision is irreversible, any treatment at this time cannot restore useful vision.
The following are some descriptions of each type of glaucoma.
I. Primary glaucoma
Primary glaucoma is mostly bilateral, but the onset of the two eyes can be sequential; primary glaucoma can be divided into two types: closed-angle and open-angle.
1, closed-angle glaucoma
Closed-angle glaucoma is one of the more common types of primary glaucoma. It is more common at the age of 45 years or older, and less common under the age of 30 years. It used to be called congestive glaucoma because of the obvious eye congestion that can occur during an attack. If closed-angle glaucoma can be treated correctly at an early stage, it can often be treated satisfactorily and even cured.
2.Open-angle glaucoma
Open-angle glaucoma is also known as simple glaucoma. Open-angle glaucoma progresses very slowly, and there are no obvious symptoms, so it is not easy to detect early, and individual patients are even blind in one eye and do not know when the disease started. This kind of eye disease, which gradually leads to blindness without symptoms, has a greater risk. Patients are between the ages of 20 and 60.
Secondary glaucoma
There are many types of secondary glaucoma.
1. secondary glaucoma caused by anterior corneal adhesive white scar;
2. secondary glaucoma caused by iridocyclitis;
3, secondary glaucoma caused by ocular trauma;
4, Fundus vasculopathy and secondary glaucoma;
5.Intraocular tumor and secondary glaucoma;
6.Facial vascular nevus and secondary glaucoma;
7, hormones and secondary glaucoma; (systemic or local use of hormones, if the duration is long, can produce high intraocular pressure).
8, ciliary glaucoma syndrome;
9, cystic glaucoma; (due to cataract).
Third, congenital glaucoma
Congenital glaucoma is caused by abnormal development of the anterior chamber angle tissue during fetal life, mostly present at birth. As the wall of the eye is easily dilated by the pressure of the infant, the whole eye is enlarged, so it is called “watery eye”.