“When I was first diagnosed with glaucoma, I was depressed. I didn’t know much about glaucoma, or whether the pressure could be controlled. I had trouble even accepting that something this serious could happen to my eyes.”- Roger McGuinn, Co-founder of the famed pop music group The Byrds.
With no treatment needed, glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness in the United States, while simultaneously being the number one leading cause in Africa (Glaucoma Research Foundation). According to the American Optometric Association, “Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases causing optic nerve damage. The optic nerve carries images from the retina, which is the specialized light sensing tissue, to the brain so we can see.” They go on to say that when dealing with glaucoma, one’s eye pressure plays a vital role in damaging the delicate nerve fibers of the optic nerve. “When a significant number of nerve fibers are damaged, blind spots develop in the field of vision. Once nerve damage and visual loss occur, it is permanent.” The National Institute of Health states that due to shallower anterior chamber depths, this defect hurts the lives of people mostly from East Asian descent. The Foundation continues to say that blacks are among the people who are three times more likely to have glaucoma while woman in general are two times more likely to developing angle closure glaucoma.
While these are risk factors, Dr. Tim Kennedy who Launched Patient.co.uk jointly with his GP wife, Dr. Beverley Kenny, informs us in 1995 that even having a family history, possessing very short sight, or have ever been diagnosed with diabetes puts you at risk of developing a form of glaucoma. Of the different forms of this illness chronic open-angle glaucoma is the one contain...
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...erted in the eye to help drain aqueous fluid.
After laser surgery and eye drops don’t do the job making a drainage flap in the eye and inserting a drainage valve is next. Trabeculectomy is the filtering microsurgery involving the creation of a drainage flap. This flap will then allow fluid to “percolate” and later drain into the vascular system. All procedures aim to reduce the pressure inside the eye. Surgery may help lower pressure when medication is not sufficient, however it cannot reverse vision loss.
Sadly, after all of our breakthroughs a cure for glaucoma has yet to surface. Patients with glaucoma need to continue treatment for the rest of their lives. This makes it insanely difficult because the disease can progress or change silently. Because of the nature glaucoma is in, constant visits to the eye doctor is essential in keeping the disease low-key.
Optometrists have accepted vision therapy, which is a medical treatment for optical muscle disabilities, as a feasible treatment used for eye related problems; claiming the treatment can strengthen vision and give the patient the opportunity to understand visuals quicker and clearer (Press). Vision therapy originated in the 1950s and over the past 25 years, has gained popularity, mainly because of new technological innovations in the field of treatment. Generally, vision therapy is prescribed as a measure mainly for people between the ages of 3 and 18. With the results from a comprehensive series of eye tests, the optometrist can work with the patient using special instruments—prisms, filters, occluders, and eye lenses—and strengthen the eye muscles, thus improving sight. According to optometrists in favor of vision therapy, these methods of treatment using these instruments function as safer routes to repair eye disabilities. Although vision therapy can yield favorable results, the practice as a treatment for innate eye disabilities has been in hot debate lately; as it can exceed $8000 and insurance companies do not cover the treatment. For decades, insurance companies have refused to accept vision therapy as a legitimate method for repairing eyesight (Boink). Concomitant with lack of insurance, the cost for a full treatment can exceed $8000, and doctors cannot guarantee a successful outcome. Recently, parents of children with eye related disabilities, such as amblyopia (lazy eye) and strabismus (cross-eye), and doctors have attempted to cooperate with public schools to allow families access to school-funded doctors to practice vision therapy. With a tight budget, most schools cannot afford to supply vision therapy, and a...
Here we have Dr. Todd performing a phacoemulsification, or in simpler terms, small cut cataract surgery. When a cataract is developed, the eye’s natural lens is cloudy and is usually a result of an injury, disease, or aging. During cataract surgery, the cloudy lens is removed or cleaned out and replaced by
Glaucoma is a disease of the eye and it is fluid pressure within the eye rises and if the eye is left untreated the patient might lose vision or maybe even blind. But this disease is generally affects both eyes but although one of their eyes may have more severe signs or symptoms then the other eye. When you have glaucoma there are small spaces in the front of the eye and they are called anterior chamber. There is clear liquid that flows in and out of the anterior chamber and the fluid nourishes and bathes nearby the tissues. And if the patient has glaucoma the fluid dose not drain like it should drain but the fluid drains out of the eye. And this may lead to fluid build up and pressure inside the rises of the eye. Unless the pressure is brought down and controlled and the optic nerves and some of the other parts of the eye might become damaged leading to ...
...eye fluid to leave the eye. The new channel helps to lower the eye pressure. Surgery will be recommended only if your ophthalmologist feels the benefit of a lower eye pressure achieved with an operation outweighs possible complications and/or further progression of optic nerve damage.
The high percentages of individuals who endure this impairment justifies and practically demands future research because the causes are not fully understood. The need for future research can be better emphasized if those with normal vision try to empathize with victims of macular degeneration. One can only imagine how frustrating it must be to receive sensatrions only in the periphery of the retina. Because the macula encompassed the cone rich fovea, which is used to focus on objects, the fovea degenerates as well. This occurence inables individuals to interpret the sensations they experience. Reading, ...
I have always been taught that you should never judge a book by it‘s cover. Something happened at birth that has greatly affected who I am today. I was born with a condition called lazy eye. Lazy eye syndrome is a condition where the eyes do not align properly, causing one or both eyes to weaken. If left untreated, the lazy eye does not develop properly. I inherited this from my dad, who also inherited the condition from his father. My mother first noticed I had eye problems when I was 2 months old and had my eyes examined. Because of my age, my doctor was reluctant to try surgery. So, my parents followed the treatment regiment and had me wear eye patches to help strengthen the weak eye. After 18 months of treatment, my doctor felt I was ready for surgery. Although some improvement was noticeable, it was too early to know if this would be the only surgery necessary to correct my eyes. I would have to continue to track my eyes through doctor examinations over the next few years to know if the surgery was completely successful.
Particularly, those who have any of the following: heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, or sickle cell anemia. In fact, just about any medical condition which affects the entire body can increase the chances of developing glaucoma. People who have migraines are also vulnerable.
Wet Macular Degeneration can be slowed with an anti-angiogenis injections to the eye, but it is crucial to get a diagnosis early.
If you have cataracts, you may need surgery at some point in the future. Cataracts grow at different rates, and yours might not need surgery for years. On the other hand, if your cataracts grow quickly and interfere with your vision, then having them removed is the best thing to do. The procedure is fairly simple and quick. It's done as an outpatient at an eye surgery center. Here's a look at how the surgery can help and how it's done.
Glaucoma is defined as a slow, progressive disease that causes an increase in intraocular pressure against the optic nerve (Potter and Perry, 2015). Glaucoma can also be described as groups of disease that damage the optic nerve in the eye. The optic nerve sends information from the eye to the brain. Most of the time glaucoma is progressive, silent, and can be untreatable if the disease is too far along. Glaucoma causes loss of peripheral vision, central vision and blindness in the later stages (Williams and Hopper, 2015).
Some conditions may be treated with eyeglasses, contact lenses, and eye drops or other medicines
Glaucoma is a type of disease that is a result of the damage of the optic nerve in the eye. This can result in the loss of vision which can lead to blindness. Glaucoma can be prevented if detected early and treated within reasonable time to avoid significant loss in vision and eye damage. There are different types of this disorder including open angle glaucoma which includes low-tension and high-tension. The pressure in the eye builds up due to a slow release of fluids in and out of the anterior chamber of the eye. It builds up near the optic nerve and creates pressure and tension. When pressure is built up near the optic nerve, the optic nerve will will be damaged and result in loss of vision. Different people have various levels of pressure that could potentially lead to glaucoma. Another type of glaucoma which is very rare is angle-closure glaucoma, which is when the drainage canals become closed and the intraocular pressure increases. This type of glaucoma should receive medical help immediately.
A healthy life goes by many aspects in a human life which may be include having a good vision. However, there are many unknown cause vision disorders like cataracts, glaucoma, and macular degeneration that can blinds in these people life. Therefore, in this post, there will be an overview of the cause of one of these vision disorders which is the macular degeneration. Macular degeneration is caused by the deterioration of the central portion of the retina, the inside back layer of a person’s eye that records the images of he or she is seeing and sends these images via the optic nerve from the eye to the brain. The retina’s central portion, known as the macula, is responsible for focusing central vision in the eye that helps us to see, read,
Optic nerve atrophy is a debilitating condition that in almost all cases leads to blindness or near blindness. According to the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (2014), the disease is classified as “mild to severe damage to the optic nerve that can adversely affect central vision and color vision” (“Optic nerve atrophy,” para. 2). What is even more devastating is that there is no known cure for the disease – the damage caused to the eye by optic nerve atrophy cannot be undone. In order to treat the disease, the only option is “limiting further optic nerve damage (if possible),” (“Optic nerve atrophy,” para. 5). For those with optic nerve damage as a result of the disease, if vision has not been completely lost, co...