Glaucoma
General characteristics of the disease
The medical term "glaucoma" is taken to mean a whole group of severe ophthalmic pathologies. The disease got its name from the Greek word "γλαύκωμα", the literal translation of which means "blue clouding of the eyes." Such an exotic name for the disease is due to the special color of the pupil. With glaucoma, it becomes a specific blue-green color, acquires an extended immobility state and leads to complete blindness.
Signs of glaucoma can be diagnosed in a person of any age. However, with the greatest frequency of glaucoma occurs precisely in the elderly. So, for example, cases of congenital glaucoma are diagnosed in only one child per 15-20 thousand children in the first months of life. In persons over 75 years of age, diagnosed cases of glaucoma are already more than 3%.
Glaucoma causes
At the moment, there is no consensus in the medical scientific community about the causes and mechanisms of the development of glaucoma. The theory of the influence of increased intraocular pressure is considered as one of the versions.
It is believed that systematic or recurrent increased IOP can lead to trophic disorders in the structure of the eye, impaired fluid outflow and other complications that cause defects in the retina and optic nerve in glaucoma.
The version about the multifactorial nature of the glaucoma disease is also quite widespread. The set of factors that cause glaucoma include hereditary causes, anomalies in the structure of the organs of vision, trauma, pathology of the nervous, vascular and endocrine systems.
According to this theory, the summing effect of all or several of the above factors can trigger the mechanism of glaucoma development.
Glaucoma symptoms
More than 60 different types of disease with specific symptoms are combined under the term "glaucoma". Glaucoma of any of these types is primarily characterized by damage to the fibers of the optic nerves. Over time, the process passes into the stage of complete atrophy of visual function.
The earliest symptom of glaucoma is poor drainage of intraocular fluid from the eyeball. It is followed by a deterioration in the blood supply to the tissues of the eye, hypoxia and ischemia of the optic nerves. Lack of oxygen to the tissues of the eye, as one of the signs of glaucoma, leads to the gradual destruction and atrophy of the optic fibers.
Some of them may be in a state of so-called parabiosis (sleep). This allows you to restore the function of the eye with timely treatment of glaucoma.
Types of glaucoma
Congenital glaucoma is most often genetically predetermined or caused by intrauterine infections. The symptoms of this type of glaucoma are manifested in the first weeks of life. A child is born with high intraocular pressure, bilateral enlargement of the cornea or the entire eyeball. In everyday life, congenital glaucoma is sometimes called dropsy of the eye or bovine eye.
Juvenile or juvenile glaucoma is diagnosed in children over 3 years of age. In late cases of manifestation of signs of glaucoma, the disease can manifest itself up to 35 years. At an older age, the diagnosed glaucoma is already referred to as an adult and can be primary or secondary.
Secondary glaucoma is usually understood as a clouding of the pupil and signs of optic nerve atrophy, which have become a complication of another ophthalmic disease.
Types and stages of primary glaucoma
Primary glaucoma is the most common type of disease. It can be closed-angle and open-angle.
The clinical symptoms of open-angle glaucoma include the slow progression of the disease, the absence of any unpleasant sensations in the patient, the appearance of the effect of rainbow circles in the late stage of the disease, and a gradual blurred vision. Open-angle glaucoma usually affects both eyes at once, but develops asymmetrically (at different rates in both eyes).
Angle-closure glaucoma is more often diagnosed in women, since the predisposing factors for this type of disease are the small size of the eye. Signs of this type of glaucoma include the presence of acute attacks of loss of vision. Under the influence of nervous shocks, overwork or prolonged work in an uncomfortable position during an attack, a sharp blurred vision occurs, there may be pain in the eyes, nausea, and vomiting. Then the patient develops a state of pregaucoma with a period of relatively normal vision.
Depending on the severity of the glaucoma disease, glaucoma is distinguished in four stages:
- A characteristic symptom of glaucoma of the first (initial) stage is normal visual boundaries with a slight distortion of peripheral vision.
- A sign of second or advanced stage glaucoma is severe lateral vision impairment and a general narrowing of the visual field.
- At the third advanced stage of glaucoma, a symptom of the disease is the preservation of only individual segments of the visual field.
- The fourth terminal stage of glaucoma is characterized by complete blindness.
Glaucoma diagnostics
The effectiveness of glaucoma treatment depends on the timely diagnosis of the disease. Determination of indicators of intracranial pressure using tonometry or elastotonomerism is of leading importance in it. The quality of the outflow of intraocular fluid in glaucoma is studied through the use of electronic tonography.
The perimetry method for measuring the boundaries of vision, as well as gonioscopy, are also of great value in the diagnosis of the disease. With the help of the last named method, the structures of the anterior chamber of the eye are examined. The use of scanning laser ophthalmoscopy allows to clarify the qualitative and quantitative disorders in the structure of the optic nerves.
Each of these methods is highly informative, therefore, only one of them can be used in dynamic monitoring of the effectiveness of glaucoma treatment.
Glaucoma treatment
Glaucoma can be treated with medication or surgery. Glaucoma operations, in turn, are also of two types: traditional, performed with a microsurgical scalpel or laser.
The basis for the drug treatment of glaucoma is three directions:
- intraocular pressure lowering therapy,
- improving the blood supply to the optic nerves and the inner membranes of the eye,
- normalization of metabolism in the tissues of the eye.
The leading role in the drug treatment of glaucoma is played by ophthalmic hypotensive therapy (lowering IOP). The other two directions are of an auxiliary nature. For example, they use a natural herbal complex from Dr. Pankov to treat diseases of the organs of vision.
The use of conservative treatment of glaucoma is indicated only in the early stages of the disease. In case of grade III-IV glaucoma and ineffectiveness of drug therapy in relieving an acute attack, it is recommended to perform a surgical operation.
Laser surgery for glaucoma allows you to remove obstacles to the outflow of intraocular fluid. The technique of laser surgery for glaucoma involves the use of the technique of iridectomy or trabeculoplasty. Their essence is in creating a microexplosion for local tissue rupture or in causing a burn with subsequent scarring.
The advantages of laser surgery for glaucoma include a short rehabilitation period, an outpatient setting and local anesthesia during the application of the technique. The main disadvantage of laser surgery for glaucoma is the limited effect. At the stage of mature glaucoma, only radical surgery is used.
The disease is treated surgically using several types of techniques:
- trabeculectomy,
- sclerectomy,
- iridectomy,
- iridocycloretraction, etc.
There is no single standard in the application of one type of operation or another for glaucoma. In each case, the type of surgery for glaucoma is selected individually.
Alternative treatment of glaucoma
The prevalence of the disease has led to the emergence of a huge number of methods of alternative treatment of glaucoma. Some of them, for example, nutritional therapy, the use of sunglasses, breathing exercises, air procedures are welcomed by official medicine.
Recommendations for alternative treatment of glaucoma are also considered legitimate, urging, if possible, not to tilt your head:
- do not wash the floor,
- do not wash,
- do not weed,
- do not lift weights, etc.
However, it must also be admitted that official medicine is skeptical about many methods of treating glaucoma with folk remedies: be it infusions of duckweed, woodlice, lotions with scarlet juice, instilling honey in the eyes, etc.
YouTube video related to the article:
The information is generalized and provided for informational purposes only. At the first sign of illness, see your doctor. Self-medication is hazardous to health!
