Glaucoma is a group of diseases that can damage the eye’s optic nerve, resulting in vision loss and blindness. It occurs when the normal fluid pressure inside the eye slowly rises, damaging the optic nerve, which is necessary for good vision. Factors that can lead to glaucoma include a family history of the disease, race and age. While glaucoma can affect people of any age, it is more common in seniors. African-Americans, Hispanics and people with diabetes are also at an increased risk.
Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide. During Save Your Vision Month, the physicians and staff of the Yale Eye Center and Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science are calling special attention to this disease.
Glaucoma Services at Yale
The Glaucoma Section is the largest clinical section at the Yale Eye Center and offers a complete range of services and instrumentation for patients with glaucoma and related diseases.
Glaucoma services at Yale include:
- Cataract and glaucoma surgery
- Computerized and manual visual field assessment
- Confocal scanning laser optic nerve evaluation
- Evaluation of glaucoma suspects
- Gonio, slit lamp, and stereo fundus photography
- Management of complicated glaucomas, including glaucoma implant surgery Quantitative color vision assessment
Glaucoma Research at Yale
James Tsai, MD of Ophthalmology is collaborating with Stephen Strittmatter, PhD, a Yale neurobiologist/physicist to develop new therapies for glaucoma. Their research involves:
- investigating the neuroprotective effects of erythropoietin (EPO) for the treatment of glaucoma
- designing novel experimental procedures to investigate neuroregeneration of retinal ganglion cells by blocking the Nogo Receptor (which Strittmatter discovered)
- developing new neuroprotective and neurorepair drugs that could offer a novel strategy in the treatment of glaucoma.