March 12, 2012 
Glaucoma, often called the silent thief of sight, is the leading cause of blindness in people over 40 years….
Do not let glaucoma darkens your life – is the slogan for this year’s World Day against the disease, aiming to raise as much awareness about it.
Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness in people older than 40 years and the major problem is, according to the Glaucoma Section of the Croatian Society of Ophthalmology, that patients often do not even know they have it because it is a disease without symptoms, but if detected on time the damage can be prevented .
– Glaucoma is often called the “silent thief of sight” because in most cases there is no pain or symptoms until the moment when the loss of vision is obvious, and when these changes are usually irreversible – warns professor. Dr. Lovre Bojić, Chairman of the Glaucoma Section and an ophthalmologist in Split. This year’s fight against the disease lasts for an entire week, from 11th to 17th March, during which the activity of ophthalmic companies worldwide are aimed at early detection of glaucoma.
Clogging the tiny openings
Professor Bojić says that this is a set of disorders, including increased eye pressure, optic nerve damage and visual field damage. The people often refer it as “green glaucoma”, because of the gray-green glow in the affected eye.
– It is a disease that you can hardly recognize by yourself, mainly because it does not cause any special problems. However, your ophthalmologist will easily detected it by measurement of intraocular pressure and eye examination.
Additional tests, such as visual field examination and optical coherence tomography (OCT), can reveal the degree to which the disease has progressed and whether there has been damage to other sensitive structures in the eye and to what extent. So, although glaucoma sounds like a fatal disease, it is not so if it is detected on time.
After the 40th year of life, detailed examinations should be made in order to predict the risk of developing glaucoma – emphasizes professor Dr. Bojić.
The importance of examination
The most common cause of glaucoma is clogging of the tiny openings in front of the iris in the eye angle through which the humor aqueus flows into the bloodstream. In this case, the liquid flow is weaker which increases the eye (intraocular) pressure, and this situation leads to increased pressure on the optic nerve.
– Because of that the nerve becomes damaged and collapses, resulting in gradual loss of vision. The field of vision gradually narrows, which ends with the irreversible total loss of vision, or blindness. Normal values ??of intraocular pressure range between 11 and 21 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg).
However, today we know that these limits do not apply to everyone, but that the normal value of intraocular pressure is individual, i.e it is normal if it does not lead to changes in the visual field, the function and anatomy of the optic nerve. Because of these facts, an important overall ophthalmic examination is necessary, and not only the measurement of intraocular pressure – says professor dr Bojić.
Risky groups
The main risk factors for developing glaucoma are intraocular pressure height and age. Although glaucoma usually occurs in people older than 50 years, it is recommended that all individuals after 40th year at least once every two years visit their ophthalmologist for an intraocular pressure examination. If a family member is diagnosed with glaucoma or elevated blood sugar, the chances of getting glaucoma are larger. Other risk factors are myopia, thinner cornea and gene mutations.
Taken from: www.slobodnadalmacija.hr