Glaucoma - Did you know?

December 15, 2015 -- You may have read about Glaucoma in the Learning Center, but did you know these Fast Facts?
  1. Glaucoma is not curable but must be managed with eye drops and/or surgery to control eye pressure.
  2. Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the world. It is the leading cause for Hispanics and African Americans in the United States.
  3. It is estimated that over 3 million Americans have glaucoma but only half of those know they have it.
  4. There are two main types of glaucoma, open-angle and closed-angle. Open-angle is the most common affecting approximatel 95% of individuals and is the type of glaucoma that develops in some people from long term corticosteroid use from cornea transplants. Closed-angle comes on more suddenly and occurs because the angle between the iris and the cornea is too narrow.
  5. In terms of Social Security benefits, lost income tax revenues and health care expenditures, the cost to the United States government for glaucoma is estimated to be over $1.5 billion annually.
  6. Most people do not experience symptoms or pain from increased intraocular pressure which is why it is important to see your eye doctor on a regular basis for a comprehensive eye exam.
  7. People with diabetes are twice as likely to develop glaucoma as those who do not have diabetes.
  8. Our Foundation has been conducting studies to reduce the risk or cornea transplant recipients developing glaucoma as a result of corticosteroid use.
  9. The strongest risk factor for glaucoma is a family history of glaucoma.
  10. Glaucoma and cornea problems often go hand in hand. We are interested to learn how glaucoma patients do with small incision DSEK and DMEK cornea transplants and we have reviewed the outcomes of hundreds of patients. We have found that visual results can be just as good for those with glaucoma as for those without glaucoma. However, through long-term longitudinal analysis we have found glaucoma patients that have had prior glaucoma surgery tend to have shorter cornea graft survival resulting in repeat transplants.
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