Cataracts or glaucoma, which is more dangerous to eye health?

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الفرق بين المياة البيضاء والمياة الزرقاء

The eye is the organ of vision responsible for sight, so it is a very sensitive organ. Even simple cases can cause a visual problem, some of which are temporary, meaning that they recover with a treatment plan by an ophthalmologist, and some of which carry very serious complications. You may have heard many times about two of the most common eye problems among many groups of people, especially the elderly, which are cataracts and glaucoma. To avoid confusion between them, it is necessary to clarify the similarities and differences.

Similarities and differences between cataracts and glaucoma

Certainly, the first thing that comes to mind is that both those suffering from the problem of cataracts or glaucoma face problems related to vision that is dark or blurred, especially since they are both classified as the most common eye diseases among the elderly. Therefore, we found it important to raise awareness of the danger of these problems to the health of your eyes, to explore the similarities and differences, and to identify the nature of the causes and risk factors, in addition to the most effective treatment options.

White and blue water in terms of definition of each

The difference between cataracts and glaucoma

When a doctor diagnoses a patient with cataracts, which is the common name that most people use to indicate a clouding of the transparent lens of the eye, which creates a barrier and obstacles that prevent light rays from passing through the lens to the retina, which acts as a camera negative or image-making factory, and in the event of this problem, vision will be blurred and unclear, with colors being seen in a dim manner.

As for glaucoma, it is a disease resulting from the internal pressure of the eye reaching high levels. This may be due to one of the causative factors, which causes increased pressure on the tissues, layers and internal parts of the eye, specifically the optic nerve, which is gradually damaged and destroyed, threatening complete blindness or complete loss of the sense of sight. After we have provided a different explanation for what concerns cataracts and glaucoma individually, each of them separately, we will remove the ambiguity regarding the causes of each of them.

Common causes of cataracts and glaucoma

Certain causes behind the risk of developing cataracts have been explored as follows:

Age factor One of the factors that greatly influences and overlaps with the risk of developing cataracts is that it is a problem related to aging, as it can be considered one of the diseases of old age that appear especially in some elderly people and is one of the features accompanying that age stage, such as gray-white hair.
Increased risk of chronic diseases with serious health effects on the blood vessels and nerve cells in the body, including the eye in particular. This problem commonly appears in people with diabetes and those who have a history of unstable disorders in blood sugar levels, so that they have uncontrolled and fluctuating indicators, and at the same time the disorder continues for a long time.
Situations that are associated with accidents or violent trauma to the eye, which results in the lens being exposed to a cloudy, hazy effect.
Side effects of some types of drug classes that contain cortisone as an effective treatment for some health problems, such as hypersensitivity.
Suffering from a congenital deformity in children since birth, resulting from the mother being exposed to a serious complication, which affected the health of the fetus, and sometimes this may be linked to hereditary genes.

Causes of glaucoma

On the other hand, glaucoma, we have previously mentioned the cause, which is a result of increased pressure within the eye tissues resulting from increased amounts of fluids retained within the eye, or it may be related to a disorder or exposure to the channels that undertake the process of draining and getting rid of them in the form of secretions outside the eye. There are some cases in which people are more susceptible to glaucoma than others, especially:

People with diabetes
Elderly
It may be due to genetic factors that increase the chances of developing glaucoma.
People with short-sightedness or long-sightedness
People with high blood pressure
Having a previous medical history of eye surgery

Cataracts or glaucoma, which is more dangerous to eye health?

The question may now be about which eye problem is more serious, cataracts or glaucoma, in terms of the severity of the risks. Although your vision may be threatened and you may suffer from blurring when you are affected by either of them, and the matter may even worsen if immediate medical intervention is ignored to the point of complete loss of vision, most doctors and experts agree that glaucoma is the most serious and leaves a direct impact on the strength of vision, stemming from the damage it targets the optic nerve, which doctors may not succeed in repairing. Treatment will focus in most cases on maintaining the integrity of the part of the optic nerve that is healthy. Unfortunately, in most cases, a complete improvement in vision cannot be expected, even with adherence to the treatment plan.

In contrast to the problem of glaucoma, cataracts are a condition that doctors can successfully treat and overcome the damage that affects the eye by having the patient undergo a procedure to replace the damaged lens of the eye by removing it and replacing it with a new lens. Here, it is expected that the quality of vision and visual acuity will improve significantly and within a short period.

Treatment of cataracts and glaucoma in the eye

The doctor often resorts to limited treatment techniques as follows:

Using sound waves and focusing them on the damaged lens of the eye to break it up and fragment it, then making a simple surgical incision to help remove it, not exceeding 1.8 cm in diameter, then using another artificial lens that performs the same function with higher degrees of quality.
Femtolaser technologyIt is based on the doctor making a small incision in the cornea of the eye, not exceeding 1.8 centimeters, which enables him to get rid of the outer membrane of the lens and break the parts of the lens that were damaged, while completing the procedure and moving to withdraw the damaged lens using sound waves from the inner part of the eye.

Glaucoma treatment

We will mention the methods of treating glaucoma that the doctor determines based on two factors at the time of discovering the condition and the extent of the damage to the optic nerve. Then we will be in the early initial stages of the disease, during which the doctor prescribes therapeutic drops to treat blurred vision and improve vision, with periodic follow-up of the health of the optic nerve, and this is in mild cases.

For more advanced cases of glaucoma, the final solution is a surgical procedure that aims to drain fluid from the eye, which reduces the amount of pressure on the optic nerve.