The picture of Glaucoma.
Glaucoma accounts for 40% of blindness in Singapore.
It is an eye condition in which pressure within the eyeball is increased due to an imbalance between the production and drainage of fluid resulting in damage to the optic nerve that carries visual impulses from the eye to the brain.
It develops gradually and the patient may not even be aware of the gradual loss of vision until very late in the disease.
Glaucoma affects vision because the raised pressure can injure the delicate nerve fibres in the retina and the optic nerve at the back of the eyeball.
