Most people who catch glaucoma early on and who are compliant with their treatment will never go blind from glaucoma. The most common reason that a person goes blind from glaucoma is that they never knew they had the disease. A patient may already have mild optic nerve damage yet still have normal appear visual fields. When the optic nerve damage increases, then the field defects appear and also progress. Often through exam of the optic nerve one can catch glaucoma before field defects hinder a patient.

Because there are no obvious symptoms, a patient may think they are doing well and decide not take their medications regularly; in this situation, they are at more risk of losing visual field and central vision.

With treatment, we attempt to lower the eye’s pressure below a certain threshold where visual field loss and optic nerve damage cease occurring. We set initial target goals for the eye’s pressure. The optic nerve and visual fields can then be followed closely over the years to make sure we are below a pressure threshold at which no progression is occurring.