Huddersfield surgeon Nitin Anand’s glaucoma warning

Mar 1 2010 by Anne-Marie Senior, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

GET your eyes checked – is the message from a top Huddersfield eye surgeon.

Mr Nitin Anand, consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, is urging people to have an eye examination ahead of World Glaucoma Week, held between March 8 to 14.

The disease, known as ‘the silent thief’, can destroy up to 40% of a person’s eyesight before they even realise.

Indeed, half of glaucoma sufferers are unaware they actually have the condition.

And by the time they notice the symptoms, their sight has usually gone for good.

Mr Anand, said: “Glaucoma is a disease of the nerve to the eye.

“There are no symptoms of the disease until you go blind.

“The patient starts to lose patches of vision without even knowing. It is not until these patches join together that they realise. Once you lose vision to glaucoma you do not get it back because you lose nerve fibres.

“The best thing is to catch people early.”

Anyone can develop the condition, but people with glaucoma sufferers in the family are most at risk along with those over the age of 40 or who suffer from high pressure in their eye.

A test which shoots a puff of air into the eye is routinely used to test for glaucoma. But Mr Anand stressed those most at risk should have regular screening.

He said: “They need to have more than a puff of air test. On its own, it is poor. Half the patients probably present with low pressure. There is very good screening available now, which will pick up on glaucoma much better.”

He said eye pressure – the classic sign of glaucoma – was caused by a blockage in the mesh of the eye that helps drain fluid away.

But he assured the vast majority of patients could be easily treated using eye drops to slow down the rate of progressions.