What is ocular hypertension?
Ocular hypertension is a disease of the eye that carries the risk of going on to glaucoma. Ocular hypertension is not glaucoma, however. Ocular hypertension means that the pressure inside the eye is high. It can happen in one or both eyes, but usually is present in both.
Ocular hypertension symptoms
In the vast majority of cases, ocular hypertension has no symptoms. Even though the pressure in the eye may be higher than normal, it is usually not high enough to cause any major symptoms. It is often found incidentally by an eye doctor during a routine eye exam. In order to diagnose ocular hypertension, a patient needs to have their eye pressure checked during an exam. If you are squeezing your eyes very hard, this could artificially raise the pressure in your eyes. Therefore, it is important to do your best to relax while your eye pressure is being checked. Because there are no symptoms, it is also important to have a regular eye exam with your eye doctor so that you can be evaluated for high eye pressure and other eye conditions.
Ocular hypertension treatment
Ocular hypertension may or may not need immediate treatment. Your doctor will discuss this with you and there are many different factors that can contribute to the decision of treating high pressure in the eye. Your doctor will also do other tests, such as a corneal pachymetry, an optic nerve OCT, and most likely a visual field. These other tests will help the ophthalmologist to determine if your ocular hypertension needs treatment.
If it is determined that you do need treatment for your high eye pressure, then your doctor will likely offer you two options. The first option is an eye drop. There are many eye drops that are able to lower eye pressure and your doctor will select one based on your medical history. Another option is doing a laser to lower the eye pressure. This laser is called an SLT laser which stands for Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty. If the laser treatment is successful, it can last up to five years, and it can be repeated as well. Both laser and eye drops are considered good first line options to help lower eye pressure.
Ocular hypertension vs glaucoma
Ocular hypertension and glaucoma are related but they are not the same thing. Glaucoma means that the optic nerve has already shown some signs of damage. This damage may be noticed by your ophthalmologist on a visual field test that you do in the office, by examining the optic nerve, or through another picture of the optic nerve called an OCT.
Although they are technically different, ocular hypertension and glaucoma are treated in the same way. In both diseases, the treatment is to lower the pressure of the eye. It should be noted that not all cases of ocular hypertension require treatment, whereas nearly all cases of established glaucoma should be treated. It is important to have an ophthalmologist who understands the subtle differences between these two diseases and when treatment or observation is the right choice.