Definition

Glaucoma is a disorder of the eye in which the optic nerve is damaged. The optic nerve carries light messages from the eye to the brain. Left untreated, glaucoma can result in loss of vision.

Description

Over two million people in the United States have glaucoma. About eighty thousand of these individuals are legally blind because of the disorder. Glaucoma is the leading cause of preventable blindness in the United States. The condition is about three times as common among African Americans as among whites. The risk for glaucoma increases rapidly with age, but the condition can affect any age group, including newborn infants and fetuses.

Glaucoma is actually a class of disorders. More than twenty different forms of the condition have been identified. They all develop in a similar way, however. The amount of aqueous (pronounced a-kwee-us) humor, a watery fluid that fills the inside of...