On an average, untreated Glaucoma takes around 10-15 years to advance from early damage to total blindness. With an IOP (Intraocular Pressure) of 21-25 mmHg it takes 15 yrs to progress, an IOP of 25-30 mmHg around seven years and pressure more than 30 mmHg takes three years.
Even with treatment ,15% to 20% of patients become blind in at least one eye in 15 to 20 years of follow-up. In a recent study, Peters et al. found that at the last visit before death, 42.2% of treated patients were blind unilaterally and 16.4% bilaterally.
Glaucoma is a serious, lifelong eye disease that can lead to vision loss if not controlled. But for most people, glaucoma does not have to lead to blindness. That is because glaucoma is controllable with modern treatment, and there are many choices to help keep glaucoma from further damaging your eyes.
Without treatment, glaucoma will eventually cause blindness. Even with treatment, about 15 percent of the time glaucoma can lead to blindness in at least one eye over a period of 20 years.
If undetected and untreated, glaucoma first causes peripheral vision loss and eventually can lead to blindness. By the time you notice vision loss from glaucoma, it's too late.
stages: stage 0 (normal visual field), stage I (early), stage II (moderate), stage III (advanced), stage IV (severe), and stage V (end-stage).
Absolutely. The aim of treating patients with glaucoma is for them to be able to maintain their quality of life and live as normally as possible. Patients with glaucoma have a normal life expectancy and, with treatment, can carry out activities as they did before diagnosis.
Glaucoma cannot be cured, but you can stop it from progressing. It usually develops slowly and can take 15 years for untreated early-onset glaucoma to develop into blindness. However, if the pressure in the eye is high, the disease is likely to develop more rapidly.
Glaucoma is the second-leading cause of blindness in the U.S. It most often occurs in people over age 40, although an infant (congenital) form of glaucoma exists.
The Blue Mountains Eye Study found an age‐standardised all case mortality of 24.3% in persons with glaucoma and 23.8% in those without glaucoma nine years after initial evaluation. In our study, 29.8% of our patients with glaucoma died within 10 years of diagnosis; most as a consequence of vascular disease.
Prescription eye drops can stop glaucoma from progressing. Your eye care specialist will recommend how often to return for follow-up exams. Medicare covers a glaucoma test once a year for people in high-risk groups.
Glaucoma is generally considered a slow-progressing disease of the eye. In the most common form of glaucoma, primary open-angle glaucoma, damage to the retinal cells occurs quite slowly. Untreated glaucoma can progress to blindness within several years.
Summary. Living with glaucoma does not necessarily mean giving up driving. Some drivers with glaucoma learn to scan the visual environment such that they are still safe drivers. However, it is important to have your driving assessed if you or your family and friends are concerned about your driving.
Defining advanced glaucoma
This Glaucoma Staging Codes (GSC) categorisation considers glaucoma to be advanced if there is evidence of glaucomatous optic disc and visual field (VF) loss in both upper and lower hemifields and/or a defect encroaching within 5° of fixation.
Untreated glaucoma can lead to the faster development of permanent vision loss or blindness. Treatments can slow down additional vision loss, but they can't restore lost vision. It's important to see an eye doctor right away if you have eye pain, severe headaches or vision problems.
Older age is not only a risk factor for the diagnosis of glaucoma, but also for its progression. Overall, these studies show that the percentage of patients with glaucoma increases dramatically with age, especially in patients who are of Latino/Hispanic and African descent.
Glaucoma affects peripheral vision first—meaning a patient could have “perfect” 20/20 vision but still have glaucoma. For patients suffering from open angle glaucoma, peripheral vision is gradually lost, while central vision is usually spared. These people sometimes notice excessive fluid in their eyes.
Certain drugs and eye diseases can cause yet another form of the disease, called secondary glaucoma. But probably the most serious form of the disease is closed-angle glaucoma. It occurs when the angle becomes suddenly blocked, causing pressure in the eye to rise sharply.
Disk hemorrhages, nerve fiber layer defects, and color vision abnormalities are early signs of damage, supporting the conclusion that damage is present before field loss. A number of other methods await further testing to determine their effectiveness.
8 Loss of vision in glaucoma has been traditionally described as “tunnel vision” or as if “looking through a straw” (courtesy: National Eye Institute and National Institutes of Health). Loss of peripheral vision for 1 eye indicates diminished vision toward the edges of the VF of that eye (Figures 2A and 2B).
Normal eye pressure ranges from 12-21 mm Hg, and eye pressure of greater than 21 mm Hg is considered higher than normal. When the IOP is higher than normal but the person does not show signs of glaucoma, this is referred to as ocular hypertension. High eye pressure alone does not cause glaucoma.
Although there is currently no cure for glaucoma, prompt treatment can help slow or stop the progression of vision loss. Depending on many factors, including your age and the type and severity of your glaucoma, treatment may include medications and/or surgery directed at lowering eye pressure.