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5.6 Glaucoma




Description

This article is from the Vision and Eye Care FAQ, by grants@research.canon.com.au (Grant Sayer) with numerous contributions by others.

5.6 Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a symptomatic condition and not a disease "sui generis". It
is a collection of physicals signs: raised intra-ocular pressure, visual
field loss, enlargement of the blind spot and changes in the appearance of
the optic nerve head. There are a variety of clinical classifications of
glaucoma.

Treatment details
- eyedrops to reduce aqueous fluid production, increase fluid drainage.
- laser trabeculotomy to increase outflow of the aqueous humor.

Glaucoma may be defined as "those situations were IOP is too high for
normal functioning of the optic nerve head (Shields, 1992.) IOP is closely
linked to aqeous humor (clear, watery, fluid in the eye) dynamics. IOP is a
function of aqeous humor outflow (AHO) and production (AHP) (IOP = AHO -
AHP). Therefore pharmaocological treatment is aimed at either increasing
outflow or decreasing production of aqeous humor. IOP is measured by many
different types of machines by your health care proffesionals. These exams
are important because as with hypertension, when symptoms are noticed by
the patient the damage has already been done.

For patients who are refractory to medical treatment a surgical operation
is performed. This operation makes an external drainage system for the AH
and thus increased outflow. This proceedure called a trabeculectomy, is
done in the operating room with local anesthesia. Sucess rates for normal
risk patients is very high.

OTher information located on the Web includes:
URL:http://ops.ophth.uiowa.edu/MOL_WWW/Glau.html
(information on the condition including cross section of the eye and
optic nerve head fundus photography)

URL:http://www.dorsai.org/~glaucoma/index.html
(extensinve information on glaucoma including FAQ's on the disease, medication
research and drug information)

URL:http://eyesite.ucsd.edu/text/Glaucoma.html
(maintains a listserver for ophthalmic specialists, and FAQ's - under
construcion)

URL:http;//catalog.com/dicon
(manufacturer of visual field equipment which is used for testing of
effects of glaucoma.)


 

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