What Are the Symptoms of Glaucoma?

The formation method, clinical presentation, and treatment of various types of glaucoma are very different from each other.

The vast majority of glaucoma types are the open-angle type, and no symptoms are observed in this group of patients. There is no visual impairment or pain in the early stages. If the disease is not diagnosed early and progresses, blind spots occur in the visual field due to the damage to the optic nerve. Later, surrounding objects become invisible, as if looking through a pipe. As it progresses further, this pipe vision (tunnel vision) is also lost. Therefore, glaucoma is an insidious disease that sometimes progresses silently for years, causing significant destruction to the optic nerve, and is only noticed by many patients in its advanced stages.

In the rarely seen closed-angle type of glaucoma, the eye pressure suddenly rises very high. It presents with symptoms such as redness in the eye, pain, blurred vision, seeing colored halos around lights, nausea, and vomiting. This is generally observed in hypermetropic (farsighted) patients.

Since there is no reversibility once vision loss occurs in glaucoma, early diagnosis is important. Abnormal intraocular pressure detected during a normal eye examination can be the first sign of the disease. Examinations performed at regular intervals by an eye doctor are the best way for the early diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma.