Glaucoma

Glaucoma is one of the most common vision threatening conditions in Australia. Glaucoma generally affects those over the age of 50, but may be present at birth or diagnosed during childhood in rare cases.

It is estimated that approximately 300,000 Australians suffer from this condition, but up to 50% of these individuals are unaware of their condition (Glaucoma Australia, 2023).

What is glaucoma?

Glaucoma is a disease process that affects the optic nerve, the structure that connects the eye to the brain. The condition characteristically causes the loss of peripheral vision, leading to tunnel vision or even blindness in severe cases. Glaucoma is often associated with elevated pressure within the eye, though this is not always the case.

What symptoms does glaucoma cause?

In more extreme forms, glaucoma may cause blurred vision, haloes (circles of light in the vision) and vision loss. Sudden onset glaucoma may be extremely painful, and be associated with nausea and vomiting.

More often however, glaucoma is completely asymptomatic, and is only discovered on routine screening with your optometrist or ophthalmologist. Only very late in the disease process, once irreversible damage has already been done, may patients notice obvious symptoms.

For this reason, everyone over the age of 50 should have their eyes checked routinely by their eye care practitioner.

How is glaucoma treated?

Glaucoma is treated using a number of techniques, all of which aim to reduce pressure within the eye. Treatment may take the form of regular eye drops, laser treatment or surgery.

Once a diagnosis of glaucoma is made, patients begin a program of regular checks with their ophthalmologist to ensure their eye pressure is adequately controlled, and to monitor for signs of progression.

Patients will have their peripheral vision monitored using an automated perimetry system (field test), as well as optical coherence tomography (OCT) which uses light to measure the health of the optic disc.