Juvenile glaucoma: symptoms and treatment

Glaucoma is a chronic eye pathology, which is characterized by permanent or temporary processes of increasing indices of pressure inside the eye. The juvenile appearance develops at a young age due to congenital hereditary pathologies in the structure of the iris and the angle of the cornea. Such defects, as a rule, are transmitted at the genetic level.

Signs and stages of the development of the disease

Clinical manifestations are different. As a rule, people under the age of 30 are exposed to pathology, the extreme age of the disease is 35 years. Some patients develop iris changes, some patients start complaining about the symptoms of the disease only after reaching the age of 10 years. Youthful glaucoma progresses rather slowly, and the cornea does not change its size.

In medicine, three types of juvenile glaucoma are classified:

• Glaucoma, the signs of which are similar to the manifestations of primary glaucoma in old age.
• With the manifestation of congenital changes on the front of the eye.
• Forming, in the myopic eye.

The first type of juvenile glaucoma does not provoke compaction of the cornea, sclera and limbus. For this form of pathology, some changes in the structure of the iris and the development of atrophy of the basal part of the iris are characteristic. As for other manifestations, they are similar to the signs of glaucoma in the elderly, which is characterized by increased pressure inside the eye, changes in the optic nerve, narrowing of the visual fields and deterioration of the visual organs.

The youth is inherited by a dominant type, it affects mainly the male.

The second type of juvenile glaucoma is usually combined with progressive pathologies of a systemic nature. The process of the disease can make itself felt at different times and is able to flow in the likeness of eye dropsy or without it. Identification of this variety is difficult because of the erasure of the main symptomatology.

In cases of juvenile glaucoma, an increase in intraocular pressure occurs, as a rule, in the evenings.

Diagnosis of pathology

Diagnosis of this type of glaucoma in the presence of congenital pathology is not difficult. Gonioscopic or topographic examination is performed to identify erased forms of the disease. The majority of patients with juvenile glaucoma in the depth of the anterior chamber's corner retained the remains of the mesodermal embryonic tissue.

The main condition for preservation and restoration of vision is early diagnosis of the disease, timely and properly organized therapy, and clinical examination of the patient.

The most effective diagnostic method is a comprehensive examination using specialized capabilities of modern diagnostics.

Treatment of youthful glaucoma

Experts hold the opinion that the process of treatment of the disease must begin with the organization of antihypertensive medication. In such a situation, preference is given to the medicines of the prostaglandin group.

In the case of rapid progression of the disease process and the absence of the expected result from drug therapy, surgical intervention should not be postponed.

For patients suffering from this disease, individual conservative therapy is required provided that the disease progresses slowly, and in case of rapid development, surgical intervention will be required earlier to prevent severe consequences of pathology in the future.

Often patients are prescribed the administration of myotic medicines in the form of installations two to four times a day. With a strong increase in intraocular pressure, antiglaucomatous surgery is performed.