Vision Rehabilitation Can Help Patients Unable to Prevent Vision Loss in Glaucoma: Jullia Rosdahl, MD, PhD

Jullia Rosdahl, MD, PhD, an ophthalmologist and glaucoma specialist at the Duke Eye Center, discussed how catching glaucoma early is the best way to prevent long-term complications regarding vision loss.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity; captions are auto-generated.

Transcript

Are there ways of preventing glaucoma?

That's a great question. We don't really have a way to prevent someone from developing glaucoma, but by early detection, we can often help prevent or slow down the risk of vision loss from glaucoma. And so getting eye exams on a regular basis that include having the optic nerve looked at—a dilated pupil, your doctor looking at your optic nerve, either an optometrist or an ophthalmologist looking at that nerve—and knowing if you have risk factors like a family history of glaucoma, because glaucoma can run in families. Some racial groups have a higher incidence of glaucoma, so Hispanic Americans, Black Americans, although anyone can get it. It's more common as we get older, but can happen in younger people too. And then if you've had any trauma to your eye, that's another risk factor for glaucoma.

What can patients do if they experience vision loss from glaucoma?

I think now this is something that I could have included in one of my other answers, or an answer to a question of, what can patients do who have experienced vision loss from glaucoma. And so here I'd like to mention the area of vision rehabilitation. There's an area of eye care where the team isn't focused on helping to cure or treat the disease itself, but they help patients with their function who have lost vision. Anyone experiencing any amount of effect on their daily living from their vision, whether it's just difficulty with contrast and some lighting recommendations can help, or if they've got a large blind spot, or even if they've lost all of their vision, helping navigate spaces with screen readers and all kinds of amazing technologies and strategies. Really, making sure that people are aware of vision rehabilitation if you're having any effect on your on your vision from from your eye disease.