Eye doctors have urged short-sighted people to have their eyes examined annually, saying that cases of glaucoma were not being identified early enough.
In a recent case, a 26-year-old woman with severe myopia who had surgery to correct it seven years ago found out she had glaucoma only after her eyesight had already declined significantly.
Because she had failed to have an annual eye check, she made the discovery only after going to the doctor about an infection in her right eye.
She discovered that vision in both her eyes had declined. The nerves in her left eye had degenerated, with her eyesight rated at less than 0.01. She could barely count the number of fingers a doctor held up in front of her face.
Glaucoma is a disease marked by increased pressure within the eyeball that can result in damage to the optic disk and a gradual loss of vision.
By the time symptoms such as blurred vision or narrowed eyesight are experienced, most patients are already in the late stage of glaucoma.
Other cases
A senior eye doctor who wished to remain anonymous said he had encountered two or three similar cases over the past six months, all of them involving women. In the most serious case, the patient was nearly blind and could only sense light.
To check for glaucoma, another eye doctor frequently conducts a sophisticated "fundus examination," helping an average of four to five patients who have had short-sightedness correction surgeries discover the problem in a timely manner every year.
A fundus examination involves examining the part of the eye opposite the pupil.
Most of the patients had gone to see him because of complaints of dry or itchy eyes, he said.
But he said that because a fundus examination was time-consuming, few doctors performed it.
There are no obvious symptoms in the early stages of the illness. So when patients sense it, they are already in the late stage.
According to the disease's estimated prevalence rate of 1.45 percent, there are at least 300,000 glaucoma sufferers in Taiwan. It is difficult to discover without a fundus examination being performed every year.
Even eye doctors have sometimes been found to have been unaware that they had the disease. Two weeks ago, two eye doctors attending a medical conference discovered they had glaucoma when receiving test examinations.
An eye doctor, who wished to remain anonymous, said many people mistakenly believe that only myopia of more than 1,000 degrees is high-degree myopia.
However, so-called "acute myopia" refers to short-sightedness of more than 600 degrees.
He said that another common misconception among patients was that they were "cured" after having eye surgery, when in fact their eyeballs remain unchanged.
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