Glaucoma Information
Your eye is an amazing optical device. To have excellent vision the eye needs to be perfectly round. The eye is filled with clear fluid and there is a certain pressure to the fluid that helps keep the eye in this perfectly round shape (much like your car tire is filled with pressurized air to maintain the round shape of the tire). The fluid that fills the eye continually circulates to provide nutrients to the structures inside the eye. This fluid, called the aqueous, is produced in one area of the eye, circulates around the inside of the eye, and finally drains through a structure known as the trabecular meshwork that is near the edges of the iris (the colored part of your eye). If the trabecular meshwork, or drain, starts to become clogged, the fluid has difficulty leaving the eye and the eye pressure increases. Increased eye pressure is one of the main risk factors for developing nerve damage (glaucoma). It is believed that the elevated eye pressure pushes in against the optic nerve, leading to nerve damage. An elevated eye pressure can be your doctor’s first evidence that glaucoma is developing. The eye pressure should be measured at each visit with an eye doctor. Glaucoma treatments are designed to lower the eye pressure, which will reduce the risk of further nerve damage.
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