What is glaucoma in children?

As electronic screens become more and more common, such as mobile phones and tablets, children spend more and more time on them every day, resulting in a higher and higher incidence of eye diseases, especially myopia. Wearing glasses at a young age is very unsightly. In severe cases, it can lead to glaucoma and finally blindness. These are very scary and we must pay attention to them. So what is glaucoma in children?

Childhood glaucoma is a disease that causes damage to the optic nerve. The optic nerve is composed of many nerve fibers. When the intraocular pressure increases, it can cause damage to the optic nerve fibers and cause visual field defects. Mild visual field defects in the early stages are often difficult to detect, but severe damage to the optic nerve can lead to blindness. Primary infantile glaucoma is the most common type of developmental glaucoma. This disease refers to developmental glaucoma before the age of 3. Because the eyes and bodies of infants and young children are still in an active development period, they have unique symptoms and signs that are different from those of glaucoma patients of other ages. Due to the enlargement of the affected eyeball, infantile glaucoma was once called "bull's eye", and it was also called "water eye" due to corneal edema. The first symptoms are "photophobia, tearing and blepharospasm". In the early stage, there is photophobia under strong light. As the disease progresses, tearing and blepharospasm gradually appear.

Clinically, glaucoma presents as headache, dizziness, eye pain, eye swelling, blurred vision, and halo vision. During an acute attack, severe cases may experience a sharp drop in vision to the point where only light perception is left, and may also be accompanied by symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, chills, and fever.

We generally think that only the elderly can get glaucoma, but in fact there are also many children suffering from glaucoma. Common ones include congenital glaucoma: the person is born afraid of light and sheds tears; the black part of the eye looks larger, and due to high intraocular pressure, the cornea becomes very turbid and the eyes look unclear.

In fact, glaucoma in children is caused by improper use of eyes, except for a small number of children whose disease is hereditary. Therefore, in the face of the serious consequences of glaucoma, parents must pay attention to it and let their children develop good eye habits to reduce the occurrence of glaucoma. If the situation is already very serious, go to a regular ophthalmology hospital in time to seek medical treatment and recover health as soon as possible.