What is Glaucoma

  Glaucoma, a group of clinical syndromes, is characterized by progressive optic nerve damage, visual field defects, and ultimately irreversible blindness.  The classification of glaucoma is complex. It is classified as primary, secondary and congenital. Primary, in turn, is divided into open-angle type and closed-angle type. Closed-angle type is the most common in China, and can be divided into acute and chronic closed-angle glaucoma. While the open-angle type are chronic course. The causes of secondary glaucoma are varied, including: iritis, ocular trauma, surgical complications, and hormonal medications that cause it. Congenital, which is caused by abnormal development of the eye.  The typical clinical manifestations of glaucoma are mainly: eye redness, eye swelling and pain with headache, even nausea, vomiting, vision also decreases sharply in a short period of time, and elevated intraocular pressure is found on examination. In the late stage, optic nerve atrophy, visual field defects, and even blindness can occur.  Take the acute closed-angle type, which has the most incidence in China, as an example, patients can have almost all symptoms of glaucoma during an acute attack. Before the attack, there may also be precipitating factors, such as emotional stimulation, large amounts of water or dark environment. In the early stages, the patient has no damage to the optic nerve. If the disease is not treated regularly and not controlled, irreversible damage to vision and visual field defects can occur in the late stage. Therefore, early treatment is very critical.  For chronic closed-angle glaucoma and open-angle glaucoma, there are usually no uncomfortable symptoms. Once the patient feels the symptoms of vision loss, most of them are already in the more advanced stage, and the patient may suffer from irreversible visual impairment due to untimely treatment.  Therefore, regular checkups of intraocular pressure and fundus optic nerve are an important part of the physical examination, especially for patients with asymptomatic glaucoma. Glaucoma is a disease that severely impairs vision, and early detection, early initiation and regular and continuous treatment are the most critical.