I'm a glaucoma patient - is there any new information that can be of help with me?

Newsletter: I recommend a useful & informative website that provides current & patient friendly information that is helpful for my patients living with glaucoma. I hope you will try it out. www.glaucoma.org/news/gleams/

Depends upon type: New discoveries in glaucoma are made frequently. There are two major causes for vision loss 1) failure to detect the disease 2) failure to take the medicine properly. Health journalism is now so widespread and effective that you will find out any new development sometimes before your doctor. Is your glaucoma of recent diagnosis or have you had it a long time indicating good control?

Good news!: The exciting news is there are a lot of new glaucoma treatments coming down the pipeline. There are several new classes of glaucoma medications in clinical trials that hopefully will be accessible within the next 2+ years. There are also new modes of delivery to help with compliance such as injections or insertions for slow release of the medication. Also new minimally invasive surgeries coming.

New info for glaucom: One important piece of information is the measurement of the central corneal thickness. Normal corneal thickness is 555 microns. A thin cornea (<499) is at much higher risk for progression of glaucoma and needs to be treated more aggressively. Alternatively, a thick cornea (>555-599) is protective.

Glaucoma: A good resource for glaucoma, in a patient friendly language would be the following link.http://patient.info/health/acute-angle-closure-glaucoma