What is glaucoma?

What is glaucoma?

Glaucoma is an eye disease that results from higher-than-normal fluid pressure in the eye. The pressure damages your optic nerve, which affects how visual information is transmitted to your brain. Undetected and untreated glaucoma can lead to vision loss and blindness in one or both eyes. Glaucoma often runs in families.

There are two main types of glaucoma. Open-angle glaucoma develops slowly over time and you may not notice vision change until the disease is far along. Closed-angle glaucoma can happen suddenly. It’s painful and causes loss of vision very quickly.

Symptoms include:

• Eye pain or pressure.
• Headaches.
• Red eyes.
• Rainbow-colored halos around lights.
• Low vision, blurred vision, tunnel vision, blind spots.
• Nausea and vomiting.

Treatments focus on reducing eye pressure and include prescription eye drops, laser therapy and surgery.