Nursing Care Plans For Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a condition that is caused due to the building up of pressure behind the eye. It is called intraocular pressure, or IOP, in medical terms.

This is caused due to improper drainage of the aqueous humor which causes the atrophy of the optic nerve. If it is left untreated, glaucoma causes blindness. If it is treated, there are still chances of it recurring.The chronic open angle glaucoma is the most common type to be found. It keeps recurring, and also the damage is much bigger to the optic nerves. It is also a very slow progressing disease.

There are two kinds of glaucoma actually, namely the narrow angled glaucoma and the open angled glaucoma. The narrow angled glaucoma exists with lesser known diseases, and is also more complicated to treat.

The nursing care for both the types differs depends on the severity. The care type provided is mostly common, unless there is a sudden increase in the intraocular pressure and the patient needs to be transferred into emergency care. The increase in pain signifies an increase in pressure. This type of nursing care is given for people with the common type of glaucoma, which is the open angled one.

For a narrow angled glaucoma patient, the pain is more acute, there may be inflammation and also papillary dilation. The onset of it is also characterized by sudden excruciating pain. This is clearly treated as a medical emergency. If care is not provided immediately, then it may progress to blindness.

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Who Gets Glaucoma ?

There are some people from certain ethnic backgrounds who are more susceptible to glaucoma. The African American people are found to be diagnosed with glaucoma more than any other ethnic groups. There is no clear indication as to why only the blacks are more susceptible to it. They develop glaucoma even at a young age and easily experience damage to vision. They also develop the complicated narrow angled glaucoma. More..