World Glaucoma Week丨Be careful! Your eyesight will be "stolen" by it!

The second week of March every year is World Glaucoma Week. Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the world, second only to cataracts, but it is the leading irreversible blinding eye disease .

According to conservative estimates, there are 22 million glaucoma patients in China. What does 22 million mean? That means about one in every 63 people suffers from glaucoma .

We have heard of many stories of people regaining their sight, most of which are related to cornea and cataracts, but we have almost never heard of a glaucoma patient regaining his sight. Many glaucoma patients in the late stage do not have poor vision, but see things in a tubular vision . You should know that not only poor vision is called "blindness", but also when the field of vision is extremely reduced.

So, what is glaucoma? What factors may cause glaucoma? How to detect glaucoma early and stay away from it? In response to these questions, we interviewed Zhou Jichao, an ophthalmologist at Peking University Third Hospital, to answer them.

The "robber" that steals your vision

There is a type of glaucoma that is like a robber, robbing your eyesight. This type of glaucoma is called acute glaucoma attack . The patient will feel very painful, with red and painful eyes, decreased vision, and swollen eyes. It is accompanied by headaches, nausea, and vomiting.

Acute glaucoma is an ophthalmic emergency. Do not try to relieve it by doing something at home, because the remaining vision depends largely on whether it is treated in time . When you go to the hospital, the ophthalmologist will use eye drops, take oral medication, infuse, puncture the eyeball, use laser, and perform surgery when necessary.

"The Thief of Vision"

An acute glaucoma attack is like a "robber" that blatantly steals your eyesight. However, there is an even more hateful and insidious "villain", that is the "thief of vision" - open-angle glaucoma .

Unlike acute glaucoma attacks, open-angle glaucoma steals your vision quietly. Most people discover it through physical examinations, and only a very small number of patients discover their visual field defects after they feel it. This type of glaucoma can only be detected through screening in the early stages . There are two high-frequency words in the screening physical examination that are easy to confuse people.

1. High intraocular pressure

Don't be too nervous. High intraocular pressure only indicates the possibility of glaucoma. The doctor will further verify it by measuring the difference between the two eyes. High intraocular pressure alone cannot confirm glaucoma.

2. Cup to Plate Ratio

This is a figurative metaphor, which refers to the ratio of the two rings. An enlarged "cup-to-disc ratio" may indicate glaucoma.

There are three common situations in which the "cup-to-plate ratio" becomes larger:

One is the physiologically large optic cup, which is how it grows.

Second, in cases of severe myopia, a tilted optic disc can also create the illusion of a larger "cup-to-disc ratio" and enlargement of a portion of the static cup-to-disc.

The third is glaucoma. Doctors can only see changes after 3-5 years of follow-up. Glaucoma changes are chronic, and ophthalmologists are also very cautious in diagnosing glaucoma, because once diagnosed, lifelong medication is required.

Who is prone to open-angle glaucoma?

First, if you often feel your eyes are swollen, you need to go to the hospital for screening.

Second, if there is a family history of glaucoma, glaucoma is somewhat hereditary, so you need to be vigilant.

Third, for people who frequently use hormones, whether it is for eye or systemic diseases, long-term use of hormones may induce glaucoma.

Fourth, high myopia is prone to occur simultaneously with glaucoma.

Fifth, for people over 40 years old, it is recommended to have an eye fundus examination once a year.

How to prevent glaucoma?

To prevent glaucoma, we must first understand the pathogenesis of glaucoma. We can simply think of the eyeball as a room. The degree of crowding in the room determines whether glaucoma will occur.

Imagine that there is a circle of sewers all around the room. These sewers are responsible for draining water outwards. If the drainage is not smooth, or the sewers are very crowded and very narrow, the water cannot be drained out, it is easy to cause high intraocular pressure, that is, swollen eyes.

So under what circumstances does the eyeball easily become crowded?

One of the situations is that the pupil is dilated on the basis of hyperopia and the elderly. In the dim light at home, the eyes dilate the pupil to absorb more light in order to see clearly. In other words , people with high hyperopia and the elderly should try to turn on the lights at home, avoid staying in a particularly dim environment for too long , and try to avoid going to dim movie theaters and other environments.

Doing the following can effectively reduce the risk of glaucoma.

1. Maintain healthy eye habits: avoid excessive eye strain 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, keep your emotions stable, and maintain good sleep.

3. Manage systemic diseases: Controlling diseases such as hypertension and diabetes 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.