January commands focus for Glaucoma Awareness Month
A new year has begun with a month dedicated to increased awareness to health issues centering on thyroid and cervical cancers, blood donors, and birth defects prevention.
Be sure, too, not to lose sight of January being Glaucoma Awareness Month. With this second leading cause of blindness, as stressed by the Glaucoma Research Foundation in San Francisco, damage to the optic nerve leads to progressive vision loss that cannot be reversed.
Focusing his career on the disease, Dr. Shawn Riley splits his clinic specialty practice between his offices in Myrtle Beach and Supply, N.C. He said the biggest problem with glaucoma, especially the chronic type, is the lack of symptoms. That’s why, he said, checking to “get an idea of the risk might be” is imperative, ultimately to ask one’s self, “Does this apply to me?”
Riley pointed to clues that might be found in family history, and keeping up awareness after incurring an eye injury.
“Sometimes, we forget we got hurt,” he said, referring to such circumstances from a contact sport in childhood.
“The reality,” Riley said. “is this disease in most patients can be well controlled.”
He urged everyone to keep up with exams regularly by an ophthalmologist, including eye-pressure tests for glaucoma and reviewing risk factors, because even with normal eye pressure readings, the optic nerve might still weaken and deteriorate with time. This also underscores the need to take into account such variables as heredity – the chances are heightened with glaucoma both parents – age, and statistics about ethnic backgrounds.
Since completing his fellowship training in glaucoma in 1993 at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary/Harvard Medical School, Riley has seen the number of options for treatment widen substantially from the four medications and limited laser and surgery choices available at the time.
“I treat glaucoma by medications, mostly eye drops,” Riley said, as well as “by surgery, including putting in stents in the eye to allow an alternative outflow of the internal fluid of the eye; and by laser.”
Research and developments have “changed the way we treat glaucoma,” he said, lauding “whole new categories” of medications, and the expansion of laser applications that allow smaller incision-type surgeries to insert mini- or micro-stents.
Riley spoke of just seeing an early 30s-age patient for whom he inserted a stent after a big injury that caused “a massive hemhorrage” in one eye. That treatment also has come with use of “really good safety glasses” to protect the vision that person can preserve and cherish in the other eye.
Coping with glaucoma requires a long-term commitment, too, Riley explained, with treatment that continues for the rest of a person’s life. Following up with regular checkups, and not letting up on taking necessary medications, prove their value in managing the conditions.
Riley said among all eye doctors and specialists, “we try to give as much information” as possible for patients to make their decision soundly and that he values his role to share guidance and help everyone better understand the intricate elements the human eye harbors. He said the commonplace “end stage” of glaucoma resembles “tunnel vision” and that the disease works on the eye, with optic nerve deterioration that might go so slowly that people might not know of it, “until they trip or have an accident.”
Hence his plea that no one’s life should be too busy to “pause for a moment” and assess possible risk factors for glaucoma, especially this month.
The Glaucoma Research Foundation touts a Prevent Blindness America Survey that found that 50 percent of individuals had heard of glaucoma, but weren’t sure what it was, and 30 percent never heard of it. Data from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, also based in San Francisco, show that of the estimated 3 million U.S. residents with glaucoma, only half know it.
“The important thing,” Riley said for each individual, “is to stop and hear the message, and ask, “Is there relevance over me?”
Contact STEVE PALISIN at 843-444-1764.
Did you know?
▪ Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that damage the optic nerve – the link between the eyes and brain – leading to progressive vision loss.
▪ Associated commonly with elevated pressure inside the eye, known as intraocular pressure, or IOP.
▪ Without treatment, glaucoma can cause irreversible peripheral, or side, vision loss, then in the person’s central vision, however, with early diagnosis and treatment, sight can be preserved.
▪ Glaucoma has no noticeable symptoms in its early stages, thus the accent on recognizing risk factors.
▪ Frequency of regular eye exams remains vital – Every 2-4 years before age 40; 1-3 years in ages 40-54; 1-2 years in ages 55-64 and for anyone with high rick factors after age 35; and 6-12 months after age 65.
Glaucoma by the numbers
More than 3 millon – People who have the malady, but only half know so.
More than 120,000 – U.S. residents blind because of it, , accounting for 9-12 percent of all cases of blindness.
Second – Leading cause of blindness in the world.
First – Leading cause of blindness among blacks.
6-8 – Times more common in blacks than whites.
Be on the lookout
Factors that can elevate the risk of developing glaucoma:
▪ Heredity – Individuals with a parent or sibling with glaucoma have a nine times higher risk of developing the disease, research has shown.
▪ Older age – Aging brings a higher risk for glaucoma, and several other eye diseases, hence the recommendation for regular comprehensive eye exams with an ophthalmologist – a physician specializing in medical and surgical eye care – at age 40, the time in a person’s life when early signs of eye disease and changes in vision might first occur, even with seemingly perfect vision.
▪ Ethnic background – People of African and Hispanic heritage are three times more likely to have the most common form of glaucoma than Caucasians; glaucoma-related blindness is at least six times more prevalent in blacks than whites, and people of Asian descent are at an increased risk of a sudden and acute form of glaucoma known as angle-closure glaucoma.
▪ Nearsightedness – People with myopia are more likely to have glaucoma, and with the higher degree of the former, the higher the risk for the latter.
▪ Type 2 diabetes – The longer a person has lived with diabetes, the greater the risk for glaucoma, and when the cornea – the clear, round dome on the front of the eye that covers the iris and pupil – is abnormally thin, IOP readings might be falsely low, for increased likelihood for undiagnosed glaucoma, which is common among people those who have had refractive surgery such as LASIK or photorefractive keratectomy.
▪ History of eye trauma.
Sources: Glaucoma Research Foundation (415-986-3162, 800-826-6693 or www.glaucoma.org), and American Academy of Ophthalmology’s EyeCare America (www.geteyesmart.org/eyesmart/diseases/glaucoma/index.cfm) and www.eyecareamerica.org)
This story was originally published January 9, 2016 at 7:00 AM with the headline "January commands focus for Glaucoma Awareness Month."