Specialists suggest regular check up of pressure on eyeballs to avoid Glaucoma

Kumar Rajiv Nayan

Ara : A workshop on `Black Glaucoma’ was organized under the joint aegis of Red Cross and Shahabad Ophthalmological Society on the campus of Indian Red Cross Building here on March 15, 2017.  The workshop was inaugurated by Dr S K Rungta and Prof Kamlanand Singh.

Addressing the workshop, Dr Abhishek, Ara,  said that `World Glaucoma Awareness Week’ is observed worldwide from March 12 to March 18 to create awareness among the people  for early detection, prevention and treatment of the disease. He said Glaucoma can cause permanent loss of vision before one can suspect that something was wrong hence called the silent thief of vision.

Dr Abhishekh said that Glaucoma is an eye condition characterized by damage to the optic nerve due to high pressure in eyeball leading to progressive and irreversible loss of vision. Patient of Glaucoma can have normal vision in the beginning and by the time they realize that they are losing vision damage has already been made. He further said that over 60 million people are affected worldwide and in India alone at least 12 million are affected by Glaucoma. He added only 10% affected person are aware of their disease. He said one in every four person over 40 year either have Glaucoma or is at risk of developing it.

Dr Shilpi Agrawal, Ara, a trained Glaucoma specialist, said the people at risk of developing glaucoma are family members of the affected people, myopic or short sighted people, diabetic, hypertensive, aged above 40 years. Early symptoms of glaucoma are pain and heaviness in eyes, colour halos around lights, blurred vision and frequent change of glasses, reduced vision range and headache. For early diagnosis regular eyeball pressure check, optic nerve head evaluation, and visual field testing is a must. Treatment options for glaucoma are eye drops, laser and surgery. Vision loss due to glaucoma is irreversible and even surgery cannot restore the vision once lost and hence early screening becomes very crucial.