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Causes, Types, Signs & Symptoms of Glaucoma

What causes glaucoma?

The main cause of glaucoma here in Northern Colorado is usually that the disease causes the eye to fail to maintain the correct balance between the amount of fluid created in the inner part of the eye and the amount that naturally drains out. The underlying causes for this imbalance are commonly related to the form of glaucoma you are diagnosed with.

For example: a basketball or football needs the correct amount of air pressure to have its proper shape, in the same way the eyeball needs the correct amount of internal fluid pressure in order to retain its globe-like shape and the ability to have clear vision. When glaucoma changes the ability of internal eye structures to regulate intraocular pressure (IOP), eye pressure can rise to dangerously high levels and vision is altered or there is loss of vision.

Types of glaucoma

There are two major types of glaucoma:

  1. Chronic or primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG).
  2. Acute angle-closure glaucoma.

The “angle” refers to the structures of the inner eye that are responsible for maintaining proper fluid drainage from the eye. They are found near the crossroads of the iris and the front surface of the eye near the periphery of the cornea.

Some of the more common types of glaucoma include:

  • Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG): 50% of US residents who have this type of chronic glaucoma are completely unaware that they have it. POAG is gradual and most find that it painlessly reduces a person’s peripheral vision. By the point that a person notices a problem, irreversible damage has been done. If a person’s IOP continues to be high, the long term damage can continue until eventually tunnel vision is created, and then a person would only be able to see objects that are right in front of them.
  • Acute angle-closure glaucoma: Angle-closure or narrow angle glaucoma is a more sudden form of the disease in that there are more easily detectable symptoms such as eye pain, headaches, halos around lights, dilated pupils, vision loss, red eyes, nausea and vomiting. These signs may last for a few hours, and then to return again for another round. Sadly, each attack of these symptoms takes with it part of your field of vision.
  • Normal-tension glaucoma: Like POAG, normal-tension glaucoma (also termed normal-pressure glaucoma, low-tension glaucoma, or low-pressure glaucoma) is an open-angle form of glaucoma that can cause visual field loss due to optic nerve damage. However, in the case of normal-tension glaucoma, the eye’s IOP remains in the normal range. In addition, pain is not common and irreversible damage to the eye’s optic nerve is not detected until more major symptoms such as tunnel vision occur.
    What causes normal-tension glaucoma is still unknown. Many doctors in Northern Colorado believe it is closely connected to the issue of lethargic blood flow to the optic nerve. People with higher risk factors for getting normal-tension glaucoma are those of Japanese descent, are female and/or have a history of vascular disease.
  • Congenital glaucoma: This is an inherited type of glaucoma that is detectable at birth. Eighty percent of the cases of this disease are diagnosed by age one. These babies are born with narrow angles or another issue in the drainage system of the eye. Sometimes it can be a little more challenging to see the signals of congenital glaucoma, because babies are so young that they don’t understand that their vision is limited and they are also usually unable to communicate with real clarity regarding their vision. If you the parent, notice any cloudiness, white, hazy, enlarged or protruding eye in your child, please consult your eye doctor. Congenital glaucoma is more commonly seen in males.
  • Pigmentary glaucoma: This is a much more rare type of glaucoma which is caused by pigment being deposited from the iris. When there are clogs in the drainage systems of the eye, preventing aqueous humor from properly exiting the eye. Given some time, the inflamed ducts respond to the blockages and damages to the drainage system occurs. Symptoms of this disease are usually unnoticed. There may be some pain and blurry vision that might happen after exercise. People with the highest risk factors for getting pigmentary glaucoma are white males in their mid-30s to mid-40s.
  • Secondary glaucoma: Symptoms of chronic glaucoma following an eye injury could indicate secondary glaucoma, which also may develop with presence of infection, inflammation, a tumor or an enlarged cataract.

Glaucoma Symptoms

Here in Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley glaucoma is frequently called “the thief of sight”. This is because glaucoma symptoms are slow to progress and commonly go undetected for longer than other eye diseases. Glaucoma is sneaky, it usually begins with the outer portion of the field of vision and works it’s way in. In this way, many people are unware that they have the disease until they have lost a significant portion of their field of vision. If left untreated, glaucoma can cause partial to complete blindness in one or both eyes.

The most common symptom of glaucoma is the increase of inner eye pressure. An increase in the internal pressure of the eye doesn’t always mean that you now have glaucoma. Internal eye pressure is only a condition and a possible indication that could lead to it. Which is one of the reasons why a regular exam vitally important.

In the USA glaucoma is now the second main cause of blindness, with about 2.5 million people being diagnosed with the disease. This number is expected to increase by another 500 Thousand in the next 5 years as the majority of the US population ages.

Additional signs of glaucoma

There are additional types of the disease (specifically, acute angle-closure glaucoma), where sudden symptoms of blurry vision, halos around lights, intense eye pain, nausea, and vomiting. If you have these symptoms, please immediately seek an eye care practitioner or visit the emergency room so steps can be taken to prevent additional permanent vision loss.

For additional information or to schedule an appointment, please call 970-204-4020 or click on the link on the side of the page.

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