Be aware: January glaucoma awareness month

PINE BELT, Miss. (WDAM) -January has become glaucoma awareness month and Hattiesburg Eye Clinic ophthalmologist Adam Quinn said the condition is one of the leading causes of vision loss.

With the disease damaging the eye’s optic nerve, Quinn said it’s important for people to be screened on a regular basis, especially if they are at an increased risk or if it runs in the family.

Glaucoma can affect anyone, but Quinn says it more commonly is a disease of aging.

However, some people may not even know they have it.

“That’s probably the scariest part,” he said. “We will have patients come in and its usually asymmetric, one eye will get affected before the other. But because of that, the good eye will make up for it and the bad eye can lose quite a bit of vision over the years and the patient not even know it.

“We’ve had patients come in, and they’ve lost anywhere from 80 percent to 90 percent of vision in that one eye.”

Quinn says there are improvement options for patients who have glaucoma, including eye drops, non-invasive procedures and surgeries to decrease the pressure and stabilize the eye.

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