Glaucoma is a group of several diseases that cause damage to the optic nerve, if untreated, leading to permanent blindness. The optic nerve is the nerve that connects retina to the brain, where the signals received are transformed into images. Aqueous humor, a clear liquid is constantly being released in the eye that circulates in its front portion and is constantly being flowed out of the eye. This mechanism is necessary to maintain a constant pressure in the eye. In this condition either the liquid is not flowing out of the eye, or is being produced in excessive amount than a high fluid pressure is build in the eye, causing damage to the optical nerve.
The condition is known to be hereditary in nature, i.e. transmitted from parents to children. But in some cases, there may be reasons other than natural development. This includes some chemical or blunt injury in the eye, blockage of blood vessels in the eye, as a side effect of eye surgery for some other problem, and severe eye infection.
The eye fluid moves in and out of the anterior chamber in eye continuously to nourish the tissues. The fluid leaves the eye through the chamber from an angle at the junction of cornea and iris. In some conditions, even the angel is open but the fluid passes through it too slowly that it builds up the pressure, hence damaging the optical nerve. This condition is called open-angel glaucoma. There are no clear symptoms at the initial stage. It slowly keeps damaging the vision. Initially, it damages peripheral vision, which in most of the cases is the first sign of this problem. Other symptoms may include redness in the eye, nausea or vomiting, narrowing of vision, eye pain, and appearance of halos around eyes.
Angle-closure glaucoma is caused when the angle between iris and cornea is very narrow and gets blocked by the iris. The blockage causes the sudden pressure building of the fluid in the eye. This creates an emergency situation and immediate medical help should be taken even if the symptoms stop. The symptoms of this condition may include pain in eyes, redness in eyes, headache, halos around light, vision loss and nausea.
The treatment of this disorder is possible if detected at an early stage. As in most of the cases, no symptoms appear initially, hence a regular eye check up is the only way to survive this problem. In some cases, lasik surgery may be possible, however it is not a common procedure.