Ophthalmic surgeon speaks about Glaucoma
Dr Raman-Abdulla shares her thoughts on glaucoma eye disease saying there is no cure.
The Randfontein Herald approached an expert in the medical field in light of World Glaucoma Awareness Month.
Dr Raman-Abdulla is an ophthalmic surgeon at Lenmed Private Hospital, who regularly deals with glaucoma patients. According to Raman-Abdulla, glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that damages the optic nerve inside the eye, leading to irreversible vision loss.
She explained that patients with glaucoma might not realise they have the disease until a portion of the optic nerve is damaged.
“I often find that patients are only being diagnosed with glaucoma when they are going for a routine spectacle examination. It is very important that people realise that there are no definite symptoms,” she said.
She further confirmed that any individual is at risk of having glaucoma. However, she stated that there are risk factors that increase the probability of getting glaucoma. This included race. Raman-Abdulla stated that the black community has a higher rate of incidents regarding glaucoma.
“In South Africa, the average number of glaucoma incidents is 4%, but in the African population it ranges from 5% to 7%,” she stated.
Raman-Abdulla claimed that people over the age of 40 are also at risk of getting glaucoma. She added that if glaucoma genetically dominates in a person’s family, they also suffer the risk. Thin corneas also contribute to the possibility of glaucoma, as mentioned by Raman-Abdulla.
She further stated that there is currently no cure for glaucoma.
“If glaucoma can be detected early enough, further vision loss can be prevented. In most cases, there are no clear symptoms. We are never really aware when our blind spot [in the eye] is getting bigger and affecting our visual field since both our eyes work together, masking the defects,” Raman-Abdulla said.
She stated that anyone can test for glaucoma by doing a screening or simple eye test at a local clinic.
“I think that not enough attention is given to glaucoma. Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of vision loss. It is very important to have a Glaucoma Awareness Month. When our beloveds start to lose their vision, it is devastating since it impacts family members. Therefore, people must understand that early detection is key,” she concluded.
Raman-Abdulla has been a medical doctor for 24 years and qualified as an eye specialist at Witwatersrand University in 2014.
