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Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that gradually steal sight without warning. In the early stages of the disease, there may be no symptoms. Experts estimate that half of the people affected by glaucoma may not know they have it.
Worldwide, glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness. In fact, as many as 6 million individuals are blind in both eyes from this disease. In the United States alone, according to one estimate, over 3 million people have glaucoma. As many as half of the individuals with glaucoma, however, may not know that they have the disease.
The most common is chronic glaucoma (chronic = slow) in which the aqueous fluid can get to the drainage channels (open angle) but they slowly become blocked over many years (see Figure 1). The eye pressure rises very slowly and there is no pain to show there is a problem, but the field of vision gradually becomes impairedt.
In the common form high pressure within the eye over many months or years. This eventually causes irreversible damage to the nerve fibres within the optic nerve. This is considered to be due to disturbance to the blood supply to the optic nerve within the eye. It results in lack of oxygen (ischaemia) to the nerve which causes damage. In normal tension glaucoma there is an abnormality of the blood supply to the nerve and progressive damage may occur without high eye pressure. The end result is the same that unchecked progressive loss of the visual field results which may eventually lead to blindness..