Explaining the top common problems of glaucoma

  In the clinic, we often encounter tearful infants and toddlers, and we often hear parents say that they have a fire, and especially sometimes we hear parents say that they can’t open their eyes when they see light. However, due to the small size of the child, which may be a few days old or less than 100 days old, the child may cry and not receive cooperation from the parents because of the need to fix the child’s head and body. Even the examination of the eye requires breaking the upper and lower eyelids, which can lead to complaints and reprimands from the parents. At this time, as a doctor, you must not be careless and must carefully examine the eye condition, carefully check the conjunctiva, cornea and tear ducts for abnormalities and not blindly make a judgment of conjunctivitis or dacryocystitis, while ignoring a terrible eye disease —- glaucoma.  Photophobia, lacrimation and blepharospasm are often the first symptoms exhibited by these children, due to irritation of the corneal epithelium caused by high intraocular pressure, early photophobia can be manifested in stronger light, as the disease progresses, lacrimation and blepharospasm gradually appear, as infants and young children do not complain, often manifesting as rubbing their eyes with their hands, irritability, like to bury their heads and other behaviors, severe cases in general light that manifests photophobia, strong light children In severe cases, the child’s face is hidden in the mother’s arms, showing the typical triad of photophobia, lacrimation and blepharospasm, especially when elevated intraocular pressure causes corneal edema, photophobia and lacrimation are suddenly aggravated, and the child is irritable and cries, unwilling to open his eyes and often buries his head to avoid the painful stimulation of photophobia.  Many children are seen clinically because their parents notice the enlargement of the eyeball. Children with monocular disease are easily detected and seen earlier, while those with bilateral disease are often overlooked and only noticed when they reach a certain level of severity. Primary infantile glaucoma is a congenital genetic dysplasia of the trabecular meshwork or iridocorneal angle that prevents atrial aqueous drainage and results in neonatal, infantile glaucoma.  Primary infantile glaucoma presents typical manifestations, such as enlarged corneas, cloudiness, Haab lines, elevated intraocular pressure, and enlarged cups and sockets of the optic disc, making it easy to make a diagnosis, but in these cases more or less direct damage to visual function has already occurred, and further damage can be caused indirectly by changes in the anatomy of the eye affecting the healthy development of visual function. In clinical practice, many children with primary infantile glaucoma have been mistaken for corneal inflammation due to photophobia, lacrimation, corneal edema and cloudiness, and should be alerted to the possibility of glaucoma if any of these manifestations occur in infants and children.  Early diagnosis and treatment of children with primary infantile glaucoma is the key to preventing damage to visual function. Therefore, children with photophobia and lacrimation should be carefully examined in clinical practice to prevent missed or misdiagnosis.