This is what congenital glaucoma is all about

The medical term glaucoma appears very frequently in daily life, and many people have heard of it, but what is congenital glaucoma? Few people know the answer to this question. In fact, congenital glaucoma is caused by the incomplete development of congenital waterproof outflow channels, which leads to obstruction of waterproof outflow.

1. What exactly is congenital glaucoma?

The front of the eye is filled with a clear fluid - aqueous humor, which is continuously produced and discharged to maintain a constant pressure inside the eye. Congenital glaucoma is caused by congenital hypoplasia of the aqueous humor outflow channel, which leads to obstruction of aqueous humor outflow. An eyeball that cannot drain aqueous humor smoothly is like a balloon. Gas can only flow in but not out. The balloon gets bigger and bigger. When the balloon can no longer hold so much gas, it will explode. The eyeball of a person with congenital glaucoma is like a balloon. It will be swelled bigger and bigger by the aqueous humor. When the optic nerve in the eyeball cannot withstand the increased intraocular pressure, the optic nerve will be crushed, eventually leading to blindness. Of course, the chance of the eyeball rupture is extremely rare.

Congenital glaucoma is also known as "bull's eyes", which vividly describes the characteristics of children with congenital glaucoma - their eyes are unusually large and getting bigger. At the same time, because of the continuous increase in intraocular pressure and stimulation of the eyeball, the child will show fear of bright light, frequent tears for no reason, eyelid spasm, etc. In addition, the child's cornea will rupture between layers due to excessive enlargement and stretching, and fine lines can be seen on the black pupil. Young parents, if your children have the above symptoms, you must not take it lightly.

There are three types of congenital glaucoma:

Primary infantile glaucoma, juvenile glaucoma, and glaucoma combined with other congenital abnormalities. Simple infantile glaucoma is the most common type. It refers to congenital glaucoma that occurs before the age of 3 and is not accompanied by developmental dysplasia in other parts of the body. Xiaobao is one of these people. Primary glaucoma between the ages of 3 and 30 is called juvenile glaucoma. They often experience visual fatigue, and their myopia worsens dramatically over a short period of time. This is because the intraocular pressure is too high, causing the eyeball to swell and leading to worsening of myopia.

3. How is congenital glaucoma diagnosed?

Because infants and young children have limited ability to cooperate with examinations, their clinical manifestations are very important for diagnosis. In addition, several objective examinations are also necessary: ​​1. Measurement of intraocular pressure: Clinically, children are usually given oral chloral hydrate, and after they fall asleep, the parents hold them in their arms and the doctor uses a Tonopen tonometer to measure the intraocular pressure. An intraocular pressure higher than 21 mmHg indicates elevated intraocular pressure. 2. Observation of the optic disc: Because observing the optic disc of the fundus can understand the damage of the optic nerve, observation of the optic disc is of great significance for the diagnosis of the disease and the judgment of the prognosis. The C/D value of normal infants and young children is rarely greater than 0.3. If it is found to be greater than this value or the asymmetry difference between the two eyes exceeds 0.2, the possibility of glaucoma should be suspected. 3. Visual field examination and optic nerve scan: This is an examination of visual function and the objective degree of optic nerve damage, but most infants and young children cannot cooperate, so it cannot be implemented. However, it is a must for older children with developmental glaucoma.