Doctor said that you have glaucoma. What's next?

What is Glaucoma?
Glaucoma - a chronic, progressive eye disease. Glaucoma is manifested by increased intraocular pressure, and finally lead to irreversible vision loss. Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness worldwide.

Why is glaucoma, which contributes to its occurrence?
So far, it is not known why the person has glaucoma. At the same time established a number of factors that increase the likelihood of disease. These are called risk factors. One major factor is age. Glaucoma most often occurs in people older than 40 years, the older the person, the higher the risk of disease.

Another risk factor - the presence of glaucoma in close relatives. In addition, it is considered that the development of the disease contribute to vascular disease: arterial hyper-and hypotension, vegetative-vascular dystonia, migraine, etc. If you find yourself several risk factors, we strongly recommend that you consult an ophthalmologist.

How does glaucoma?
Unfortunately, in most cases, the disease starts and runs without symptoms. Patient did not bother. At this stage, only an ophthalmologist can detect early signs of disease by measuring the intraocular pressure and examination of some of the structures of the eye. With the passage of time there and the symptoms that bother the patient. The most important of these is the occurrence of visual field defects. When the field of view of these violations as though some items missing from the picture.

Why should treat glaucoma?
As already mentioned, glaucoma is a chronic progressive disease. This means that without treatment, symptoms will steadily increase, and the process ended in complete blindness. In contrast, early administration of appropriate treatment can slow the progression of glaucoma for a long time and keep the patient working capacity and quality of life. This is possible only under medical advice and no breaks in lechenii.K Fortunately, glaucoma is not essential restricts lifestyle. However, avoid excessive physical exertion, prolonged operation in the head-down position, abuse of alcohol and nicotine.

How to treat glaucoma?
There are three main methods of glaucoma treatment: medication, laser treatment and surgical treatment. Only a doctor on the basis of many factors can select the optimal method of treatment and medication in each case. For best results, thoroughly implement all recommendations of a physician. in the event of defects in the visual field as if some fragments missing from the picture Self-medication is not allowed. It is important to note that any non-drug therapies, diet, exercise, or dietary supplements are no substitute for medication or surgery, appointed an ophthalmologist. The leading method is the appointment of eye drops. This revolutionized the treatment of glaucoma, in recent years, have made preparations of prostaglandin analogs. These include drug "Travatan." "Travatan" is highly effective in reducing the intraocular pressure has no effect on the cardiovascular and respiratory system. Applicable "Travatan" 1 time per day to night, that does not affect the normal life of patients. If the doctor has scheduled you eye drops should be instilled regularly, without interruptions in treatment. In no case can not be arbitrarily interrupt treatment. Each break can lead to irreversible vision loss. In some cases, laser treatment is shown. This patient, virtually painless procedure takes only a few minutes. In more complex cases or when the effect of eye drops or laser treatment is defects is increasing over time, not enough doctors to resort to surgical intervention.

What is the criterion for successful treatment?
Glaucoma is a chronic progressive disease. This means that the cure of her at this stage of development of medicine is not possible. Success can be considered to stop the progression of the disease. This can be judged from the fact that the level of intraocular pressure remained within normal values, and visual field defects are not narostayut.