Glaucoma is a common and serious blinding eye disease in ophthalmology. Its pathogenesis is complex, its clinical manifestations are diverse, and the treatment effect varies from person to person, with some patients requiring lifelong medication and others requiring multiple surgeries, thus making many glaucoma patients more psychologically burdened and unable to properly understand and receive reasonable treatment.
Glaucoma is a group of diseases with common features of optic nerve damage and visual field defects, and pathological IOP increase is its main risk factor. It is by no means untreatable, and the majority of glaucoma can be effectively controlled by medication and surgery to maintain good vision for a long time, while only a few cases are poorly controlled but can be treated to prolong useful vision. Patients with glaucoma should not be pessimistic and should maintain a good mood. Depression and rage are triggering factors for glaucoma.
Patients should treat this disease with the right mindset. Glaucoma patients are prone to two extremes: either they know the danger of this disease and consider it incurable, producing pessimism, disappointment, fear, missed treatment, and giving up treatment,. Either they do not know about this disease, especially chronic open-angle type patients, thinking that I do not feel much and it is not as serious as the doctor said. As a result, serious consequences are caused, and they spend the rest of their lives in darkness, bringing great pain to individuals and families.
Glaucoma is one of the most common blinding eye diseases, causing blindness to patients for various reasons. Common causes are as follows.
1, open-angle glaucoma and part of chronic closed-angle glaucoma, because there are no symptoms, patients do not know that their eyes are diseased, and once they are found to be advanced or already blind.
2, patients do not listen to doctors, do not trust doctors, do not want to do any examination, will be the best time to treat missed.
3.Insufficient awareness of the dangers of glaucoma, full of care about their disease. Some people just work desperately and never see a doctor until they feel their visual field shrink, then they go to the hospital. At that time, it is often advanced.
4, can not use the medication on time, when there are symptoms on the order of drugs, no symptoms on the order of drugs, never measure the intraocular pressure, but also do not know how well their eye pressure control after the order of drugs. The unreasonable use of medication delays the treatment.
5. Do not listen to the doctor’s advice. Fear of surgery, the doctor before the surgery to explain the prognosis of the surgery, can not be treated correctly, always afraid that after surgery will be vision loss or even blindness, the surgery delayed again and again, until the late loss of the best treatment time.
6, Some patients after surgery, because the symptoms disappear, they think glaucoma has been completely cured, and ignore the tracking observation, regular monitoring, some patients in the postoperative blindness unknowingly.
7.Some patients only pay attention to the observation of IOP after surgery without checking whether the visual field has changed. Some patients have abnormalities in hemodynamics, such as having cardiovascular disease, hypotension and increased blood concentration. As these factors have interactions, the optic nerve is in a chronic state of inadequate blood supply for a long time, thus causing progressive narrowing of the visual field and resulting in blindness.
In view of these conditions, patients with glaucoma are advised that they must listen to their doctor’s advice and actively strive for early and effective treatment in order to minimize the damage to visual function.
Treatment should be in accordance with medical advice and regular follow-up, not changing the dosage of medication on your own. Before the onset of closed-angle glaucoma, there are often some aura, such as visual fatigue, eye distension, iris vision and brow angle distension, especially in mood swings and dim environment, when these phenomena appear, you should go to the hospital in time for early diagnosis and treatment to prevent acute attacks, which is especially important for glaucoma patients with monocular onset. Glaucoma patients should learn to measure IOP gradually. There is a simple and easy way: beginners can touch their forehead, nose tip and lips to feel high, medium and low IOP respectively. When you feel that high IOP is suspicious, you should seek medical attention in time so that you can adjust your treatment plan and get high IOP under control. In addition to glaucomatous optic nerve damage closely related to high IOP, there are some other related factors, such as hypotension, diabetes mellitus, and abnormal hemodynamics, etc. Active treatment of these diseases is beneficial to protect the visual function.
In addition, it should be noted that some anti-glaucoma drugs have side effects. For example, thimerosal is a beta-blocker, which can slow down the heart rate and weaken the heart contraction, and can also cause bronchial smooth muscle contraction, so it is better not to use it if you have bradycardia, bronchial asthma and respiratory obstructive diseases, and you should beware of the side effects when you must use it. Acetazolamide should be used with caution in patients with ureteral stones, not in those with sulfonamide allergy, not in those with hypertonicity in cardiovascular system and renal dysfunction, and glycerol is prohibited in diabetic patients. In short, you should explain your systemic disease to your doctor before using the medication so that he can choose the medication.
If you have been diagnosed with glaucoma, then you should work together with your doctor to protect your vision for years to come.
The following are a few precautions for glaucoma patients.
1. Once diagnosed, you should receive systematic and regular treatment, preferably at a relatively fixed hospital and physician. The number of daily doses and the duration of each dose should be exactly as prescribed by the doctor. To regularly check changes in visual acuity, intraocular pressure, fundus, visual field, etc.
2, the usual state of mind should be stable, excessive emotional fluctuations can often cause fluctuations in intraocular pressure and aggravate the disease. Therefore, it is important to avoid anger and anxiety, to treat people with optimism and broad-mindedness, and to maintain a good mental state. The onset of glaucoma is mostly seen in mood swings, excessive worry, depression, panic and rage may cause acute attacks of glaucoma, and insomnia is also one of the triggering factors of glaucoma. Therefore, glaucoma patients must avoid excessive mental tension, reduce unnecessary burden on the mind, and maintain adequate sleep to promote the recovery of the whole body function, especially the function of the central nervous system.
3, the diet should be light, eat more vegetables and fruits, keep the bowel movement smooth. Avoid spicy, greasy food and alcohol, strong tea, coffee, etc., and to properly control the amount of water, drinking too much water will cause an increase in intraocular pressure. The effect of food in treating glaucoma is most obvious with honey, but glycerin also has the same effect. Honey and glycerin belong to the same hypertonic agent, after taking can make the blood osmotic pressure increase, in order to absorb water in the eye, reduce intraocular pressure.
4, life must be regular. Pay attention to living, prevent colds, loose collar, sleep enough, sleep with a slightly higher pillow.
5, do not stay in the dark for too long, because in the dark environment, the pupil changes will cause the atrial water outflow channel blocked thus making the eye pressure rise. Do not watch movies and TV for too long in a dark environment. When sleeping, you can light a small lamp in the room so that the room is not too dark. Reading or other close entertainment and ambulatory work for too long can induce glaucoma attacks.
6, adhere to physical exercise, physical exercise can make the blood flow faster, the fundus stasis is reduced, the atrial circulation is smooth, the intraocular pressure is reduced. But should not do those excessive bending, head down, breath holding, weight bearing activities, so as not to increase the abdominal pressure and cause an increase in intraocular pressure, aggravating the condition.
7, glaucoma patients or susceptible people with a family history of glaucoma should pay more attention to weather changes. The onset of closed-angle glaucoma is most often seen at dusk, in the evening, in gloomy weather and in the cold season. In winter, when it is cold outside and warm inside, glaucoma patients who experience a sudden change in temperature from hot to cold when they are outside can easily trigger acute glaucoma. It is advisable for elderly people with glaucoma to find a temperature “transition zone” before going out, such as staying in the hallway for a while, or standing at the door for a while to cool down, so that their bodies can slowly adapt to the cold environment outside.