June was National Glaucoma month. Glaucoma is a condition that most people have heard have but don’t necessarily know that much about.

Glaucoma is the name given to a group of conditions in which the optic nerve suffers damage at the back of the eye. Definitions vary internationally: in the UK this damage is defined as Glaucoma when it causes a characteristic peripheral visual loss. It is often, but not always associated with raised pressure inside the eye.
Without treatment, the loss of vision usually gets worse over the course of many months or several years. The loss of vision in glaucoma is permanent, but with early treatment, the damage to vision can be minimised.
Most patients with glaucoma are not aware of problems with their vision. This is because the central vision (for reading and recognising people) is only affected when glaucoma has advanced to a late stage.
For most glaucoma patients, the main effect of the condition is the inconvenience of taking eye drops.

Even when central vision is still good, glaucoma may affect the vision needed for driving and getting about. Blindness from glaucoma is rare. If blindness does occur, it is usually because the glaucoma is already advanced when it is first diagnosed, because the eye pressure has not responded well to treatment or because patients have not taken their drops regularly.
At Lynne Fernandes Optometrists we can conduct different levels of assessment. A routine eye examination will pick up Glaucoma through 3 main screening techniques.

1. Measuring intraocular pressure
2. Assessing visual fields
3. Assessing the optic nerve

We also offer more detailed assessments under our EyeSense scheme. These will pick up smaller changes meaning Glaucoma may be diagnosed earlier. This is obviously a good idea.
Also many of our patients who are treated for Glaucoma by the NHS use EyeSense as a safety net to allow for possible variability in NHS follow up appointment delays.
What are the different types of glaucoma?
Adult glaucoma falls into two categories – open angle glaucoma and closed angle glaucoma. These categories are subdivided, according to whether the cause is unknown (primary glaucoma) or known i.e. the high eye pressure is caused by other conditions of the eye (secondary glaucoma).