By Chioma Obinna

Imagine waking up one day and found out that you can no longer identify colours? Imagine being hungry and alone with food stock in your kitchen you cannot help yourself but continue to yawn. This is the situation currently experienced by 52 years old Mr Ejiro. A father of three children can no longer use his sight no thanks to Glaucoma, the second most common cause of blindness.

Glaucoma is a condition that causes damage to your eye’s optic nerve and gets worse over time. It’s often associated with a build-up of pressure inside the eye. Glaucoma tends to be inherited and may not show up until later in life.

The increased pressure, called intraocular pressure, can damage the optic nerve, which transmits images to the brain. If damage to the optic nerve from high eye pressure continues, glaucoma will cause permanent loss of vision. Without treatment, glaucoma can cause total permanent blindness within a few years.

However, a Senior Consultant Ophthalmology & Glaucoma Surgeon, Apollo Hospitals Bangalore.

India, Dr Bharath Kumar Solanki says because most people with glaucoma have no early symptoms or pain from this increased pressure, it is important for individuals to see their eye doctor regularly so that glaucoma can be diagnosed and treated before long-term visual loss occurs.

According Solanki, it is commonly seen in people above 50 years but can occur at any age group, ethnically it is more prevalent in African region, and it is hereditary and associated with diabetes and hypertensive patients.

Contrary to believes that once you have Glaucoma there is no remedy, the Consultant Ophthalmologist said it can be treated by medicines, highly advanced laser surgeries and glaucoma implant (EXPRESS SHUNT) surgeries.

He advised that people aged above 40 years should have regular yearly complete eye examination with recording pressure of the eye, adding that patients with family history of glaucoma should undergo eye examination once in six months. “Patients having diabetes and blood pressure should undergo routine eye examination once in six months.   Patients with diabetes and hypertension need to keep their sugar levels and pressure levels under control. Early stage of glaucoma can be easily managed or treated by the medicines,” he stated.