Glaucoma
Bri Vargas
What is Glaucoma and how will it affect your life?
Glaucoma is a group of eye conditions that damage the optic nerve. The nerve carries information to the brain and when the nerve is damaged you can lose your vision. Glaucoma can affect your life in many ways such as:
- Trying to drive
- Doing certain sports
- Harder to see
- Having to take more medication
- Possibly more physical activity to get your mind of the fact you have a hard disease to live with.
What are the causes and complications of Glaucoma?
Glaucoma is caused by an abnormal high pressure in your eye. When your intraocular pressure, which is fluid pressure, is too high it is dangerous and leads to glaucoma. Normal eye pressure is ranged from 12-22mm Hg and when the pressure is higher than 22mm Hg, it puts you at more risk for glaucoma.
Complications are:
- Eye pain
- Redness
- Blurry vision
- Loss of vision
Testing for Glaucoma
- Visual Activity
- Glaucoma testing- measures pressure in eye. (intraocular pressure), which is fluid pressure. Elevated pressure indicates that you have glaucoma.
- External Examination- doctor uses pen light to look at pupils. Look at patterns of redness in eye. Check for signs of discharge.
- Slit-Lamp Examination- using special microscope with light. Doctor views eye looking for signs of Iritis. (a painful inflammation of the iris of the eye.)
Treatments
Treatments:
- Regular checkups
- eye drops
- laser treatment
- surgery
Work Cited
Clinic, Mayo. "Iritis." Tests and Diagnosis. Mayo Clinic Staff, 14 Feb. 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2015. <http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/iritis/basics/tests-diagnosis/con-20034315>.
Doctors, Various. "Glaucoma Directory: Find News, Features, and Pictures Related to Glaucoma." WebMD. WebMD, 2015. Web. 13 Oct. 2015. <http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/glaucoma-directory>.