New In Eyecare
NEW ARTICLES
For past Eyeware articles, visit our Eyecare News Archive 
|
The New View on GlaucomaCreated: March 20th, 2012Researchers are making advances in their perception of glaucoma. Long considered solely as an eye disease, glaucoma is increasingly viewed as a neurological disorder, which is generating promising treatment solutions. For many years, the prevailing theory was that vision damage in glaucoma patients was caused by abnormally high pressure inside the eye. Treatments were therefore developed to essentially lower that pressure. Still today, intraocular pressure control is unavoidable, but it’s not enough to stop vision loss. A new research paradigm puts the emphasis on the damage caused to retinal ganglion cells, which connect the eye to the brain through the optic nerve. The objective, of course, is to protect, enhance and even regenerate these cells, using treatments ranging from intraocular injection to stem-cell-based therapies and the electric stimulation of cells. According to Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg, the author of a review of these treatments recently published inOphthalmology, understanding how to protect these neurons would be vital to developing sight-saving treatments. Source: Science Daily |