Eyes are windows to the soul. The eyes are one of the most important senses. 80% of what we perceive comes through our sense of sight. Eyes help you to see the beauty around you. The thought of the loss of vision or blindness can be very scary. As age advances loss of sight is one of the important concerns, especially in old age. Protecting your eyes will help reduce the loss of blindness and vision loss. Glaucoma is a group of eye conditions that damage the optic nerve, which is vital for good vision. Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness. At Medicircle, we are conducting an awareness series on glaucoma with eminent ophthalmologists for the world glaucoma day to boost awareness and educate people about eye health.

Dr. Shraddha Satav has been working in the field of glaucoma for 17 years and has trained at L V Prasad Eye Hospital Institute in Hyderabad. She has her own practice in Pune and consults a peripheral center too. Her areas of interest are the lamina cribrosa and immune components of glaucoma.

Glaucoma Can Effect People of Any Age Group 

Dr. Shraddha says, “all ages are at risk of glaucoma. Glaucoma can strike at any age, even a one-day-old child can have glaucoma. Generally, glaucoma affects people after 40, though it is seen in youngsters too. Glaucoma can be of open angle and narrow angle. So, we can have both components in the elderly population. 

Glaucoma can Have a Very Bad Effect on Older People

Dr. Shraddha adds, “As you age your risk of glaucoma increases. Glaucoma is not necessarily due to an aging person, it can also happen because more people go on to develop diabetes. Sometimes with the age, you develop Cataracts. The size of the Cataract affects Glaucoma. With the increase in Cataract size, the area of drainage gets narrowed. When the intraocular fluid in the eye is not drained out properly, the pressure of the eye rises. High pressure in the eye is referred to as intraocular pressure. The increased pressure in your eye can damage your optic nerve, which sends images to your brain. As we grow older, our risk of hypertension, blood pressure, diabetes, all these increases that add to the risk. As we age our nerve becomes a little weaker. So, the normal aging nerve cells also start dying off. Thus, Glaucoma tends to hit the elderly even worse. So, I recommend that everybody after 40 should go for eye check-ups. And there is a special emphasis on checking your ocular pressure checking your angle checking your optic nerve,” emphasizes Dr. Shraddha.

Glaucoma is Preventable by Regular Check-ups

Dr. Shraddha tells, “To a large extent Glaucoma is preventable by regular check-ups. But once you develop glaucoma, the amount of damage that is done to your nerve is permanent. The optic nerve is a part of your nervous system, so we don't really have neurogenerative treatment as of now. If you have lost 10% of your nerve, we cannot recover that but the 90% which is still intact we can prevent further damage to it. So, to a large extent, it is preventable. For example - If you have a family history of diabetes, or you are developing a cataract, you have a narrow angle we can try to open the angle with YAG laser. So once the angle is opened, your risk of glaucoma drops dramatically. So, in that sense, it can be preventable.”

Dr. Shraddha adds, “Regular eye check-up is the only way to identify problems at an early stage. People focus only on the vision pattern, but there are other things like ocular pressure, angle, the optic nerve which needs to get checked at regular interval. And if any of these are affected, we can identify the risk for glaucoma at an early stage. So, to a large extent, this is preventable blindness.”

Early Diagnosis is Very Important as Glaucoma is Irreversible

Dr. Shraddha says, “The amount of damage which is done can never be regained. There is no therapy, no medicine, which can help to regenerate optic. We must take it more seriously. Patients are more focused on Cataract. Cataract is totally treatable with the help of surgery whereas Glaucoma is not reversible, so you need to catch it early.”

(Edited by Renu Gupta)