Keeping a close eye on glaucoma

'LIKE a thief in the night', many people only discover they have glaucoma when they are about to go blind, Lismore eye specialist Dr John Langford-Smith said.

“It is completely without symptoms until it is too late,” he said.

His passionate interest in the disease began when, as a medical student, he diagnosed his father with end-stage glaucoma.

His father, who had lost almost all of his vision, had been misdiagnosed by an eye-care professional for more than 10 years.

Glaucoma runs in the doctor's family; his mother and sister also have the disease.

Dr Langford-Smith said there were new technologies which had revolutionised how glaucoma was diagnosed.

One piece of equipment is the $300,000 Spectralis OCT, which the doctor has just purchased for his Lismore surgery.

The Spectralis measures the thickness of the nerves at the back of the eye, which glaucoma damages.

Dr Langford-Smith said patients with first-degree relatives with the disease should be tested.

A free talk on glaucoma will be given by Dr Langford-Smith at the Casino RSM Club, at 162 Canterbury Street, Casino, at 10.30am today.

Dr Langford-Smith said he planned to hold further seminars in the region.