Why does glaucoma affect peripheral vision? When you lose your peripheral vision, it is usually a side effect of a different condition. Glaucoma is the most common.
Why Does Glaucoma Affect Peripheral Vision? | Understanding Glaucoma
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Losing Peripheral Vision
Imagine staring straight ahead down a peephole. The only thing you can see is what’s in front of you. Everything around, below and above you is black. You feel like you are looking into a tunnel. This is a good example of what losing your peripheral vision feels like.
You may develop glaucoma in one or both of your eyes. When you don’t treat glaucoma, it could cause you to lose your side vision. You may not see objects out of the corner of your eye. You may not see them out of the side of your eye. By not treating glaucoma, it could even cause a decrease in your central vision or leave you with no vision at all.
Glaucoma Causes
A buildup of pressure and fluid in your eye is what causes glaucoma. This can cause damage to the nerve that brings information to your brain from your eye. When this occurs, you lose your peripheral vision, and eventually all your eyesight. Thankfully, if caught early, eye doctors can prevent you from losing your eyesight.
When you have glaucoma, your eye doesn’t balance how much fluid there is with how much it drains away. Think about a basketball that needs air pressure in order to keep its shape. Your eyeball needs fluid pressure to keep its shape and its ability to see. But, if your eye can’t control this pressure because of something, it can lead to high levels of pressure and cause glaucoma.
And, the eye, unlike the basketball, can’t spring a leak and deflate to relieve this pressure when it gets too high. Instead, your eye pressure continues to build. Then, it pushes against your optic nerve. This eventually can lead to nerve fiber damage and you losing your vision.
How to Stop Glaucoma Progression
Treatment for glaucoma helps to reduce the pressure that builds up in the eye. Doctors commonly prescribe prescription eye drops as the first line of treatment. Sometimes, you may need other medications, surgery or laser treatment. Although there’s no cure for glaucoma as of yet, diagnosing it early and treating it may preserve your eyesight.
1. Medications
Various medications are available for treating glaucoma. These medications reduce the high pressure in the eye. If you experience side effects or it’s not reducing enough pressure, your doctor can prescribe you a different medication. Common medications prescribed for glaucoma patients include:
- Travoprost
- Pilocarpine
- Latanoprost
You need to be diligent in using your eye drops exactly how prescribed by your doctor.
2. Surgery
With surgery, the surgeon performs a procedure, sometimes including laser treatment, to make a drainage flap in your eye. They insert a drainage valve or they destroy the tissue that is creating the fluid in your eye. Either way, any procedure the surgeon chooses to perform focuses on reducing the pressure in your eye. Sadly, surgery can’t reverse vision loss.
3. Laser Surgery
The surgeon uses a laser to drain the fluid from your eye. During this procedure, the surgeon uses a high-energy laser beam to stimulate the eye structure that drains fluid. By doing this, the surgeon helps drain the fluid more efficiently.
4. Drainage Implants
If you have uncontrolled or secondary glaucoma, drainage valve implant surgery could be an option for you. It’s also a good option for children with glaucoma. The surgeon inserts a small silicone tube into the eye to drain the fluid.
Watch this video from ZHealthPerformance to learn the peripheral vision training:
When suffering from glaucoma, prevention is the best cure for peripheral vision loss. If your doctor prescribes eye drops to you, you need to use them as he tells you to keep eye pressure under control. If you don’t use the eye drops, you could develop blind spots in your vision and permanent damage to your optic nerve. If you leave your glaucoma untreated, you risk permanent peripheral vision loss and possibly even blindness.
Do you know someone who lost their peripheral vision because of glaucoma? What treatments did they undergo? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!