Acute attack of glaucoma
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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An acute attack of glaucoma can develop at any stage of the disease. It can take place without any seemingly obvious reasons. In other cases, an acute attack of glaucoma is promoted by a strong emotional shock, an infectious disease, inaccuracies in eating or drinking, erroneous instillation into the eye of atropine or other means dilating the pupil. Therefore, in the treatment of elderly patients prone to increased intraocular pressure, I must refrain from the appointment of these funds.
An acute attack of glaucoma on a healthy eye often occurs without any reason.
An acute attack of glaucoma begins suddenly, most often at night or in the morning. There is a sharp pain in the eye, orbit. Headache is accompanied by vomiting, general weakness of the body. Patients are deprived of sleep and appetite. Such common symptoms of an acute attack of glaucoma can cause diagnostic errors.
Acute attack of glaucoma is accompanied by pronounced phenomena from the side of the eye: edema of the eyelids and conjunctiva, often there is tearing.
Pronounced stagnant injection of the vessels of the eyeball and conjunctiva of the eyelids. Sometimes there is chemosis of the conjunctiva. The appearance of a pronounced stagnant injection of the conjunctiva is associated with the difficulty of outflow of blood from the eye through the vortex veins. Vessels (veins) of the anterior segment of the eye due to the characteristic stagnation are broadened and tortured; The cornea is edematous, turbid, rough, and insensitive to touch. The anterior chamber is shallow, so the iris is injected. There is a sharp dilatation of the pupil, a lack of reaction to light. In detail, the bottom of the eye due to corneal edema can not be examined with the help of the eye mirror. Vision is sharply reduced. A sharp attack of glaucoma is accompanied by a sharp increase in intraocular pressure (up to 60-70 and even 90 mm Hg), the touch of the eyes is hard, like a stone. In severe cases, vision can be sharply reduced up to light sensation. There were cases of complete blindness after the first such attack (lightning-fast glaucoma). More often, however, all the phenomena of acute glaucoma gradually disappear after a few days, but after each such attack the vision decreases more or less. Very rarely there is only one such attack, usually seizures are repeated, but their initial acuity decreases, the disease can take the character of chronic glaucoma. An acute attack of glaucoma can be confused with a sharp pritom or iridotsiklitom. In this case, the administration of atropine, necessary for irites, in the eye may prove fatal for the patient with glaucoma. To avoid such a serious mistake, it is necessary to know the comparative signs of glaucoma and iritis
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