Glaucoma Health Video

Glaucoma is an eye disease that can lead to blindness. Get professional tips and advice on diagnosing, preventing, and treating glaucoma in this video.

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Contact a doctor for types of glaucoma
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About this Author

Dr. Patel grew up in Texas and studied at the University of Texas at Arlington. In 1996, he graduated as a member of the Gold Key International Optometric Honor Society with a doctor of optometry degree from the University of Houston. Dr. Patel completed a residency in Hospital Based and Geriatric Eye Care at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. During his residency, Dr. Patel served as a clinical instructor to interns from Pacific University and the New England College of Optometry. Dr. Patel has provided hours of clinical procedures workshops for both the Oregon and Alberta, Canada Optometric Associations. He has volunteered his skills on an eye care team in Thailand, and the Special Olympics programs in Oregon. Dr. Patel also serves as a clinical examiner for the National Boards in Optometry, as a consultant to the Portland VA Medical Center, and Adjunct Faculty for the Pacific University College of Optometry.

DR. RAJ PATEL: Hi. I'm Dr. Raj Patel, optometrist at Vancouver Contact Lens and Vision Clinic here in Vancouver, Washington, and I'd like to talk to you a little bit about glaucoma. Glaucoma is an eye disease that damages the optic nerve. The optic is that main nerve in the eye that helps send the electrical impulses to the brain that allows us to see. Damage usually occurs to this optic nerve as a result of that pressure inside the eye being a little elevated. The pressure inside the eye occurs as a result of the fluid in there which is called the aqueous humor. If an individual develops glaucoma, the result is damage that causes gradual loss of the peripheral vision. So there are actually quite a number of different types of glaucoma. There are two main styles of glaucoma, one called open angle and the other called closed angle, and the way eye doctors determine which version it is, is based on a series of measurements that are taken during the course of your eye exam. And those measurements were taken based on the risks factors that you might have that let us think that glaucoma might be an issue. And so, some risk factors for glaucoma include age. Those individuals over 60 have a much greater risk of developing glaucoma than folks under 60. Then individuals that have diabetes have three times the risk of developing glaucoma. If you have a family history of glaucoma then that increases your risk unfortunately. And race actually is also an indicator. African-American's tend to have three to four times the risk of developing glaucoma relative to Caucasians. If you have been a long-term steroid user, for example, if you're an individual that has had a knee problem or an ongoing back complaint whereby you have had this prednisone for a number of years, there's a small group of those individuals that might develop higher eye pressure as a result of taking the medication. So having high eye pressure may also increase your risk for glaucoma. But unfortunately, the vast group of people that have glaucoma don't really have any early warning signs or symptoms, and so glaucoma carries this moniker of being the sneak thief of sight. And so, some of the ways that eye doctors help determine if glaucoma's part of the landscape is based on measurements that are taken of the pressure in the eye, dilating the eye and looking at the optic nerves, checking the peripheral vision to make sure that there are no problems in how well an individual sees out there, checking the drainage angle inside the eye in a test called gonioscopy that helps us determine if what type of glaucoma the patient has. Also they will take some photos of the optic nerves, so that there's some future comparison. If an individual's found to have glaucoma, then the treatment is really targeted at lowering the eye pressure and that can be done by either using medications or surgery. And so, in the way of using medications, there is actually numerous different medications that can be used, a bulk of which are all eyedrops and those medications are used to lower the eye pressure. In some individuals, one medication is used and in other individuals a combination of drugs is used out to lower the pressure. And if that does not demonstrate to get the pressure to a safe place, then surgery is another alternative. So the take home message is that if you're an individual who has some of the risk factors for glaucoma and you haven't had your eyes checked in the last couple of years, then have them checked, because really, early diagnosis is the key.