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Glaucoma | Contact lenses
Macular degeneration | Low vision

CANTV Hotline 21 Winter 2001

Glaucoma

 

 

GLAUCOMA - An eye disease which affects more than 3 million Americans and half of them don't even know they have it.

Dr. Palmer is a well known local ophthalmologist and is a past president of the Chicago Glaucoma Society.  He is coordinator of Glaucoma Awareness month for Illinois for the American Academy of Ophthalmology and is a member of the National Eye Care Project - Eye Care American Committee.

January is National Glaucoma Awareness Month.

  • Why is the disease so important to diagnose and understand?
  • Open angle vs. closed angle
  • Why is glaucoma called the "Sneak thief of sight"? (By the time people realize that they are losing vision, the vision they have already lost is gone forever.)
  • Who is most at risk for developing glaucoma?
    (3X more common in blacks than whites
    6X more blindness than whites)
  • What about laser surgery?
  • Are there new drug therapies?  What about side effects?
  • Is there a difference in the way you treat blacks vs. whites?
    (Laser surgery vs. trabeculectomy) (First evidence for race)
  • What about exercise? and Diet?
  • What are the testing methods? Any new one on the horizon?

Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness on CAN TV (Channel 21)