What it means
Fluid builds up in the front of the eye and raises the intraocular pressure, which slowly harms the optic nerve. The common type (open-angle) causes no pain and steals side vision first, so many people do not know they have it. Angle-closure glaucoma comes on suddenly with severe eye pain, headache, blurred vision, halos around lights, and nausea, and needs treatment at once. Vision lost to glaucoma does not come back.
For the nurse
Teach clients to use eye drops every day for life, even without symptoms, and to press gently on the inner corner of the eye after a drop to keep it from being absorbed into the body. Many anticholinergic drugs are used with caution or avoided in angle-closure glaucoma, so check before giving them.
At a glance
| Spanish | glaucoma |
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Related terms
neur/o
A word root that means nerve or the nervous system.