Children’s Glaucoma Warning Signs

While glaucoma is more frequent in adults, it could also impact newborns and children, according to doctors. Glaucoma is a collection of eye illnesses that really can result in vision loss as well as blindness.

Glaucoma in aged and children

Glaucoma is more frequent in older people, but it can strike anyone at any age. Infantile glaucoma develops in the initial three years of life, whilst congenital glaucoma develops at birth. Juvenile glaucoma is a kind of glaucoma that can affect children as young as ten years old.

“Childhood glaucoma is relatively rare. Primary congenital/infantile glaucoma occurs in the general population at a rate of approximately 1 in 10,000 births. In India, the prevalence of primary congenital glaucoma (PCG) is one in 3,300 live births and it accounts for 4.2 per cent of all childhood blindness,” Dr Nusrat Bukhari (Mistry),

Because there are few signs, people may not understand they are losing their vision for a long period. As a result, screening is the most effective technique to detect glaucoma in adults.

“But in children, common signs of glaucoma are cloudy cornea, excessive watering of eyes, aversion to light and sometimes also the inability to open eyes,” Buttan said.

Some instances of paediatric glaucoma are classified as primary glaucoma since there is no known aetiology. Secondary glaucoma occurs when glaucoma is induced by or related to a particular ailment or disease.

Axenfeld-Reiger Syndrome, as well as Sturge-Weber Syndrome, are two disorders that have been linked to childhood glaucoma.

“Not all patients with these conditions will develop glaucoma, but their incidence of glaucoma is much higher than average, and they should be monitored regularly,” Bukhari noted.

Although many adults and children are provided medications in the initial phases of glaucoma, the majority of cases require surgery.

Surgical procedures

The most frequent surgical procedures are trabeculectomy as well as goniotomy, which open the drainage canals. Other methods, according to Bukhari, establish a bypass path for the aqueous (fluid produced by the eye) to flow out of the eye. Laser techniques, on the other hand, can be advantageous in some circumstances. Primary therapies for secondary and juvenile glaucoma includes eye pressure dropping drops and oral drugs, which are frequently used as a supplement to surgery in primary paediatric glaucoma. Early treatment is critical, and dealing with it sooner rather than later is the best way to prevent it, according to the specialists.