What are the symptoms of primary open angle glaucoma?
At first there are usually no symptoms. There is no pain or redness in the eye. Most people with glaucoma do not notice problems until quite a bit of visual loss has occurred. This is because the first part of the vision to ‘go’ is the outer (peripheral) field of vision. Central vision, used to focus on an object such as when we read, is spared until relatively late in the disease. Also, although glaucoma usually affects both eyes, it may not affect them equally. The better eye may ‘fill in’ for a while if the other eye starts to lose patches of visual field. Some elderly people with glaucoma put their gradual failing vision down to ‘just getting old’. They might not have had their eyes checked for many years and may needlessly lose their sight. Untreated glaucoma is one of the world’s leading causes of blindness. But, blindness can be prevented if glaucoma is diagnosed and treated early enough.
