The guy changed 3 pairs of glasses in 2 years but still felt tired when looking at things. After a checkup, he found that he had advanced glaucoma.

Zhang Zhang (pseudonym), a 29-year-old man with severe myopia in both eyes, always felt tired in his eyes when wearing glasses in the past two years. He changed three pairs of glasses but there was no improvement. In recent months, his vision became increasingly blurry. He went to the hospital for a check-up and found that he had glaucoma, and the disease had progressed to the late stage. If he did not control the intraocular pressure, he might go blind at any time.

Zhang Zhang (pseudonym) has severe myopia of 800 degrees in both eyes. In the past two years, he has always felt that his eyes are a bit tired when wearing glasses, but he can see distant objects clearly and has no pain or other discomfort symptoms. He thinks that the glasses may not be suitable for him, so he changed three pairs of glasses in two years, but there was no improvement.

In recent months, he felt that his myopia was getting worse. He couldn't even see the people passing by him. It was dark all around him, only the middle was bright, which seriously affected his life. He went to the Aier Eye Hospital affiliated to Wuhan University for treatment. After examination, although Zhang Zhang's vision in both eyes reached 0.8 or above with glasses, his intraocular pressure was as high as 40mmHg (normal intraocular pressure is 10-21mmHg), 90% of his optic nerves were atrophied, and his visual field of both eyes was largely defective, leaving only "tubular vision", which is equivalent to looking through a water pipe.

Wu Zuohong, a member of the Glaucoma Group of the Hubei Ophthalmology Society and director of the Glaucoma Department of the Aier Eye Hospital affiliated to Wuhan University, said that glaucoma (divided into angle-closure and open-angle) has acute and chronic manifestations and can occur in people of all ages. The former is manifested by a sudden increase in intraocular pressure and loss of vision, which often occurs in people over 50 years old; Zhang Zhang's glaucoma belongs to the latter, which has no symptoms in the early stage and is easily ignored.

"Doctor, can my glaucoma be cured? Will I go blind?" Zhang Zhang was so scared that he didn't know what to do.

"The best outcome of surgical treatment is only to maintain the status quo. The optic atrophy that has occurred cannot be restored. If not treated, progressive optic atrophy will occur, eventually leading to irreversible visual field loss and even blindness," Wu Zuohong told him.

Studies have shown that people with high myopia have a 10% to 30% higher risk of developing glaucoma than the general population. The normal axial length of an adult is about 24.5 mm, while the axial length of a highly myopic eye can reach 30 mm. The axial length of a myopic eye becomes longer and the eyeball is also enlarged. As the axial length continues to lengthen, the structure of the intraocular tissues will continue to change, and this change may cause some damage, such as cataracts, glaucoma, and various fundus diseases. The anterior chamber angle of patients with high myopia may change in morphology, increasing the resistance to aqueous humor outflow, which can easily cause increased intraocular pressure and form glaucoma.

"In recent years, the number of glaucoma patients has been getting younger. Many people have actually noticed a slow decline in vision a long time ago, but because there are no other symptoms, they think they have normal myopia or visual fatigue and do not go to the hospital for timely examination." Wu Zuohong reminded that the visual function damage caused by glaucoma is irreversible, and we need to strengthen our awareness of the harmfulness of glaucoma, detect it early, and treat it in time. We must not rely on luck and delay the treatment.