What is the difference between ocular hypertension and glaucoma

There is a certain difference between high intraocular pressure and glaucoma. Glaucoma is an eye disease in which the intraocular pressure is intermittently or continuously increased. Most glaucoma patients will show characteristics of high intraocular pressure. You cannot blindly take medication on your own for treatment.

1. Ocular hypertension is a special phenomenon that has been gradually recognized through decades of clinical practice experience in the diagnosis and treatment of primary open-angle glaucoma. In clinical work, people have also continuously confirmed that the vast majority of patients with a clear diagnosis of glaucoma have the common characteristic of increased intraocular pressure. Although ocular hypertension develops slowly and rarely causes damage to the optic disc and visual field, it does share an important pathological factor with open-angle glaucoma, namely, increased intraocular pressure.

2. Glaucoma refers to an eye disease in which the intraocular pressure intermittently or continuously rises. Continuous high intraocular pressure can cause damage to various tissues of the eyeball and visual function. If not treated in time, the visual field can be completely lost and blindness may occur. Glaucoma is one of the three major blinding eye diseases that cause blindness in humans.

3. Glaucoma cannot be cured by simply taking some medicine. Glaucoma is a general term for a group of diseases characterized by pathological increase in intraocular pressure and characteristic damage to the optic nerve and visual field. The key is the occurrence of nerve damage. Ocular hypertension refers to intraocular pressure measured by applanation tonometer at least twice higher than 21 mmHg, but there is no detectable abnormality of the retinal nerve fiber layer of the optic disc, glaucomatous visual field defect, open angle, and no other eye diseases that may cause increased intraocular pressure. Some of them may develop primary open-angle glaucoma. Currently, they need to monitor their intraocular pressure regularly and receive treatment to lower intraocular pressure. In other words, the latter does not suffer from nerve damage or reduced visual field.