Today is World Glaucoma Day, and the second week of March is World Glaucoma Week. Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide**, after cataracts, but it is the first irreversible blinding eye disease.
A conservative estimate is that there are 22 million glaucoma patients in China alone. What is the concept of 22 million? In other words, about one out of every 63 people around me suffers from glaucoma.
We've heard a lot of stories of regaining sight, mostly corneas, cataracts, but almost never heard of a blind patient with glaucoma seeing again. Many glaucoma patients reach an advanced stage, not because of how bad their vision is, but because they see things with a tubular vision. You must know that not only poor vision is called "blindness", but also when the field of vision is extremely narrow.
So, what is glaucoma? What factors can cause glaucoma? How to detect and stay away from glaucoma early? In response to these questions, we interviewed Zhou Jichao, an ophthalmologist at Peking University Third Hospital, to answer these questions.
The "robbers" who snatched their sight
There is a type of glaucoma, which acts like a robber and robs your eyesight. This type of glaucoma is called an acute glaucoma grand attack. The patient will feel a lot of pain, red and painful eyes, decreased vision, and swollen eyes. Headache, nausea, vomiting.
Acute glaucoma attacks are an ophthalmic emergency, and don't try to do something at home to get it alleviated, because how much vision remains in the future depends largely on how well it is treated. After arriving at the hospital, the ophthalmologist will order eye drops, take oral medicine, infusions, eyeball punctures, lasers, and if necessary, perform surgery.
The thief of sight".
Acute glaucoma seizures are like "robbers" who steal their eyesight, and there is an even more hateful and insidious "villain", that is, the "thief of vision" - open-angle glaucoma.
Unlike acute glaucoma groomes, open-angle glaucoma quietly steals your vision. Most people are found on physical examination, and only a few patients find visual field defects when they feel themselves. This type of glaucoma can only be detected through screening in the early stage, and there are two high-frequency words that are easy for everyone to understand during the screening physical examination.
1. High intraocular pressure.
Don't be too nervous, high intraocular pressure can only indicate that there may be glaucoma. The doctor will further verify by measuring the difference between the two eyes, and the high intraocular pressure alone does not confirm the diagnosis of glaucoma.
2. Cup-to-plate ratio.
This is a figurative metaphor, which refers to the ratio of two rings. An enlarged cup-to-disc ratio may indicate glaucoma.
There are 3 common cases when the "cup-to-plate ratio" becomes larger:
One is the physiological large visual cup, which grows like this.
The second is high myopia, and the tilt of the optic disc will also cause the illusion of a large "cup-plate ratio" and a part of the stationary cup-plate will become larger.
The third is glaucoma, which can only be seen after 3-5 years of follow-up. Changes in glaucoma are chronic, and ophthalmologists are especially cautious about diagnosing glaucoma, because once diagnosed, lifelong medication is required.
Who is susceptible to open-angle glaucoma?
One is that I often feel that my eyes are swollen and need to come to the hospital for screening.
The second is to have a family history of glaucoma, glaucoma has a certain hereditary nature, and it is necessary to be vigilant.
Third, people who regularly use hormones, whether it is an eye or a systemic disease, long-term use of hormones may induce glaucoma.
Fourth, high myopia, which is easy to be combined with glaucoma.
Fifth, for people over 40 years old, it is recommended to check the fundus once a year.
How to prevent glaucoma?
In order to prevent glaucoma, we must first understand the pathogenesis of glaucoma, we can simply understand the eyeball as a room, and the crowding of the room determines whether glaucoma will occur.
Imagine that there is a ring of sewers around the room, and this sewer is responsible for draining the water outward, if the degree of drainage is not smooth, or the sewer is very crowded, very fine, and the water cannot be drained, it is easy to get high intraocular pressure, that is, swollen eyes.
Under what circumstances are the eyeballs prone to crowding?
One of the cases is that on the basis of farsightedness and the elderly, the pupil dilation is induced, and in the case of dim light in the home environment, the eyes let the pupils dilate and absorb more light in order to see clearly. That is to say, high farsightedness, the elderly should try to turn on the lights at home, do not spend too long in a particularly dim environment, and try not to go to a dim movie theater and so on.
Doing the following can effectively reduce the risk of developing glaucoma.
1. Maintain healthy eye habits: avoid overexertion, and avoid using your eyes for a long time in dim light.
2. Develop good living habits: pay attention to the combination of work and rest, maintain emotional stability, and maintain good sleep.
3. Manage systemic diseases: Controlling hypertension, diabetes and other diseases can reduce the negative impact of these diseases on eye health.
4. Avoid eye injuries: Wear protective glasses when participating in strenuous activities that may cause eye injuries.