Will glaucoma cause blindness? What causes sudden blindness?

Glaucoma is a common eye disease that affects vision, causing vision loss and even blindness. Acute glaucoma can cause sudden blindness in a short period of time, and other problems may also occur.

Can glaucoma cause blindness?

In severe cases, glaucoma can lead to blindness. In acute glaucoma attacks, complete blindness can occur within 24 to 48 hours.

You can think of the eyeball as a rubber ball. Maintaining the shape of the rubber ball requires a certain amount of pressure. Inside the eye, we call it intraocular pressure. When the intraocular pressure is too low, the ball will flatten and our eyeball will shrink. When the intraocular pressure is too high, it will cause pressure beyond the tolerance range to the tissues inside the eyeball, thus causing damage, especially damage to the optic nerve. This will lead to decreased vision and visual field defects, which is glaucoma.

In my country, glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness after cataracts. However, glaucoma and cataracts are different. Cataracts are a treatable blinding disease. For some simple cataract patients, if they go to the hospital for treatment, doctors can restore their vision through surgery.

The damage to vision caused by glaucoma is irreversible, which means that for some glaucoma patients, even if they go to the hospital for treatment, their vision will never be restored.

What causes sudden blindness in the eyes?

Acute glaucoma

Glaucoma is a fundus disease in which the intraocular pressure increases intermittently or continuously. Both eyes are often affected at the same time, which can easily blur a person's vision. Acute glaucoma patients not only feel eye pain and vision loss, but also headaches. People who watch their phones in the dark for a long time, are overworked, or are emotionally agitated are more likely to suffer from this disease.

Acute neuritis

This eye disease is more acute and serious, and can cause blindness in a short period of time. Some neuroinflammations in the human body, such as sinusitis, tonsillitis, bad teeth, etc., can cause acute neuritis. Influenza, pneumonia, and diabetes can also cause acute neuritis. After acute neuritis occurs, the information transmission function of the brain will be affected, which may cause visual impairment.

Central retinal artery occlusion

This is a serious eye disease that can cause blindness in a short period of time.

The main causes are arteriosclerosis and heart disease. Due to arteriosclerosis, the arterial wall thickens, the lumen narrows, and blood gradually forms blood clots. During this process, the human body will basically not feel anything. Once a blood clot forms in the central retinal artery, it is likely to cause blindness.

It should be noted that some people will have symptoms before they become ill, such as paroxysmal blindness, where they cannot see for a few seconds or minutes, but it will go away after a while.

Fundus and vitreous hemorrhage

If you suddenly feel blackness and smoke in front of your eyes, and sometimes you can see black or red objects floating in front of your eyes, it is likely to be fundus and vitreous hemorrhage. Fundus hemorrhage can occur anywhere in the fundus, but if it occurs in the center of the fundus, it will cause blindness.

Friends with high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis and diabetes are more likely to develop this disease and need to be aware of it.

Insufficient blood flow to the brain

Insufficient blood supply to the brain can easily lead to sensory dysfunction. It affects the analytical area of ​​the brain, sometimes making our vision blurry, and in severe cases, it can cause sudden blindness.

In fact, it is very simple. It refers to the brain dysfunction caused by insufficient blood supply to a certain part of the human brain.

It is often caused by the following reasons: dislocation of cervical vertebrae, which reduces blood flow; lower blood pressure and reduced cardiac output; increased blood viscosity, slow blood flow or changes in blood composition; microthrombi blocking blood vessels, etc.

How to prevent glaucoma

1. Avoid mental stress, anger, worry, insomnia, etc.; have appropriate activities, such as walking, Tai Chi, running, etc.;

2. Do not drink a lot of water in a short period of time to prevent the osmotic pressure of the blood from decreasing, which will lead to an increase in aqueous humor and increased intraocular pressure. You can drink water in multiple times a day, half a cup each time, and drink slowly;

3. Do not drink strong tea, coffee, etc.;

4. Do not stay in a dark room for too long to prevent the pupil from dilating for too long, which will block the flow of aqueous humor and increase intraocular pressure; do not sit still for too long with the lights off; use low light when watching TV;

5. Soak your feet in hot water every night before going to bed;

6. Keep bowel movements smooth;

7. If you have trouble sleeping, you can take sedatives and sleeping pills appropriately;

8. Cooperate with your doctor in treating glaucoma in a timely manner and do not stop taking the medicine on your own (treatment is also an important part of prevention).