Warning of high risk of glaucoma due to overuse of eye drops

On March 16, information from the Central Eye Hospital said that glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness after cataracts in most regions of the world, including Vietnam.

According to research, the number of glaucoma patients is expected to increase significantly in the coming years. It is estimated that there will be about 80 million people with glaucoma by 2020, accounting for 2.86% of people over 40 years old globally, of which 11.2 million people are blind due to this disease.

The majority of blind people live in developing countries, especially those living in rural areas, where eye care services are lacking (47% of glaucoma patients are in Asia).

According to a 2011 study by the Central Eye Hospital on people over 35 years old in the two provinces of Nam Dinh and Thai Binh, 94% of people participating in screening were still confused or had no knowledge about glaucoma.

An alarming problem is that people abuse and arbitrarily use eye drops without a doctor's prescription, which can cause glaucoma due to prolonged use of corticosteroids.

There are eye drops on the market that contain steroids to treat itching, dry eyes, and conjunctivitis, which can lead to glaucoma if used for a long time.

In addition, many glaucoma patients are admitted to the hospital late, with very low vision and a high risk of blindness. There are also many patients who come for treatment but do not follow the doctor's instructions and treatment regimen, so the results are not very effective.

Illustrative photo. (Source: VNA)

According to Dr. Vu Anh Tuan, Deputy Head of the Glaucoma Department, Central Eye Hospital, glaucoma (commonly known as migraine or cataract) is used to refer to a group of diseases with common characteristics such as increased intraocular pressure beyond the tolerance of the eye, concavity, optic nerve atrophy and specific visual field damage. Glaucoma is a dangerous disease that causes loss of vision and can cause permanent blindness.

The cause and mechanism of the disease are still unclear, so it is difficult to prevent the disease. However, blindness due to glaucoma can be prevented by early detection, timely treatment with medication or surgical intervention, and regular monitoring and periodic re-examination.

The Central Eye Hospital recommends that glaucoma also has genetic factors, so patients and their relatives need to have the knowledge to detect glaucoma early and go to an eye specialist immediately for timely treatment.

Accordingly, the following subjects are at high risk of glaucoma: people over 35 years old (the older the age, the greater the possibility of glaucoma); relatives of glaucoma patients; patients with a history of long-term use of corticosteroids (eye drops or systemic); patients with systemic diseases (such as diabetes, high blood pressure ...); people with small eyeballs such as severe farsightedness, small cornea, shallow anterior chamber or people who are easily emotional or anxious are favorable conditions for glaucoma attacks.

Some clinical symptoms of glaucoma that people need to pay attention to are that glaucoma often starts suddenly in the late afternoon or evening, or when the patient is bending down to read, or after strong mental trauma.

Symptoms include sudden, severe pain in the eye, spreading to the same side of the head. The patient sees a rainbow of red and blue halos around lights, often feels nauseous or vomits, has abdominal pain, sweats, the eyes turn red and vision is blurred to varying degrees. It can be as blurry as looking through a fog, but vision can also be severely reduced to the point of only being able to count fingers or see the shadow of a hand; touching the eye feels like the eyeball is hard like a marble.

Sometimes the patient feels photophobia, tears but no eye discharge, swollen eyelids, red eyes with peripheral congestion, and opaque edema of the cornea.

When experiencing the above symptoms, patients should immediately go to an eye hospital or the nearest medical facility for an eye examination, intraocular pressure measurement and timely treatment. Eye examinations should be performed every 6 months to promptly detect eye diseases as well as to monitor and follow the doctor's treatment regimen when suffering from glaucoma./.

According to VNA