Glaucoma: Why you must have regular eye test

As one gets older, regular eye test is
important The eye like other organs of the body may fail in its duty of ensuring vision if some of its different parts are damaged. Glaucoma is one silent, but deadly cause of this damage, that experts said can be discovered at the early stage if people go for eye test regularly, reports Sade Oguntola.

FOR Mr. Oyedeji Adeyemi, a 36-year old father of two, his being blind today, one can say was his making. “It was in 1985 while preparing for my form 4 examination at Origbo Anglican Grammar School, Ipetumodu, near Ife that the problem started. I was in the examination room and I realised that I could not see the questions unless I moved the question paper close to the window so that the rays of sunlight could fall on it.

“ I initially attributed my inability to see to the effect of reading late into the night. I managed through the examination, my brother took me to an eye hospital who directed me to the state hospital. I eventually ended up at the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan, where I was told I had glaucoma and that I would need to have a surgery done.

The problem of not being able to see well actually was not resolved because, after the surgery, Mr. Adeyemi did not comply with the instructions he was given on his medications.

“I will buy some and leave some out because of money and in less than five months. I found I could not even see at all again,” he stated.

For the father of two girls and a graduate of College of Education Special, Oyo, it was a blindness that could have being prevented if he had been mindful of going for regular eye checkup and taking his mediations as specified.

However, more than 4 million people in Nigeria are not aware that glaucoma eye disease is the second commonest cause of blindness in Nigeria, after cataract, according to Dr. Adeyinka Ashaye, President, Nigerian Glaucoma Society and consultant opthalmologist, University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan.

Glaucoma is the term applied to a group of eye diseases that gradually result in loss of vision by permanently damaging the optic nerve, the major nerve that transmits visual images from the eye to the brain.

It is the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, and it often produces no symptoms until the affected person starts noticing that he or she could not see clearly again.

According to Dr. Ashaye, it is however pathetic that by estimate half of the people in North America and 90 per cent of those in developing countries affected by glucoma do not know they have it, despite the fact that when it is left undetected or untreated, it can lead to irreversible blindness.

Explaining why some people develop glaucoma, she said, “a healthy eye produces fluids, called aqueous humor at the same rate at which which it drains.” However, when the drainage system is blocked and the fluid cannot drain at the normal rate, it increases the pressure within the eye.

According to her, such an increased pressure in the eye, referred to as intraocular pressure, is one reason for some cases of glaucoma in some individuals. It also explains why the optic nerve responsible for transmitting pictures from the eye to the brain becomes gradually damaged and eventually result in blindness.

However, Dr. Ashaye said, there is the need for people generally to know that some people have a higher chances of having glaucoma than others. She said, it has been discovered that if a person has someone in the family that has glaucoma, his or her risk of developing the diseases increase four to nine times.

Also, a person’s risk of having it increases with age, use of medications having steroids and being black, and the fact that one wears eye glasses. According to her, because increasing age is associated with an increased risk of developing glaucoma, people above the age of 30 years are usually urged to go for regular eye checkup once they are about this age once a year.

While patients too that have diabetes and hypertension have increased chances of having glaucoma, Dr. Ashaye said physical injury to the eye is another possible cause of the disease.

“Many people sustain eye injuries at a young age. Some do not bother to get their eyes checked even after it. Even in those that tried having some form of eye treatment, they only believe once that is done, no other complications can arise years to come. Some of them however at a later age end up having glaucoma,” she stated.

However, there are means of detecting glaucoma. A routine visit to the eye care professional is the best way to discover if one has glaucoma because it does not have symptoms. “You might not realize that you are losing your vision until it is too late. By the time, you notice loss of vision, the eye damage is already severe,” she explained.

According to her, “basically, what the eye care professional does is to measure the intraocular pressure and evaluate the drainage angle of the eye as well as the condition of the optic nerve.”

She emphasised that these tests are also to be demanded for by people that go for eye glasses, so that if there is any problem it can be detected early and appropriate treatment commenced to prevent damage to the eye’s nerve cells, thus preventing loss of vision.

Dr. Ashaye said much as several factors had been found to increase the chances of one getting glaucoma, elevated intraocular pressure is currently the only treatable risk factor for this eye disease.

“It is important to treat the eye disease aggressively with the most effective products such as a prescription eye drop that can provide maximum reduction of the increased intraocular pressure in its long term control. However, in some cases, surgery can also help,” she declared.

“The medications will however need to be meticulously used as prescribed and such an individual will require regular examinations so that the eye care expert could continue to evaluate whether the glaucoma is getting worse or not and ensure that appropriate treatment options as the case requires are provided. Of course, the ultimate goal is to lower the pressure in the eye so that further damage to the nerve and vision loss are prevented.

Quite unlike what many people thought, Dr. Ashaye said, with old age, people need not lose their sight if only they give their eyes all the care it by deserves, including a yearly eye examination.

As the world marks the world glaucoma day, she enjoined people not to take chances with their sight by being part of the fight to ensure that cases of blindness due to glaucoma are reduced in Nigeria. “People need to be educated on the disease and be aware of the importance of regular eye examinations, she concluded.