The Mayo Clinic study showed that if a person had eye damage from glaucoma at the time of their diagnosis, there was a 54 percent chance of becoming legally blind in at least one eye over a 20-year period despite treatment, and a 22 percent chance of becoming legally blind in both eyes.
However, the study also confirmed that early diagnosis, before significant damage to eyes occurs, decreases the risk of going blind substantially. In people who were diagnosed with glaucoma before significant damage occurred, the risk of going blind in one eye was 14 percent over 20 years and the risk of blindness in both eyes was five percent over 20 years.
"We also found in this study that while gender was not a significant risk factor for blindness from glaucoma, advancing age was associated with the progression of glaucoma," says Douglas H. Johnson, M.D., a Mayo Clinic ophthalmologist. "The study was done using data from patients initially diagnosed with glaucoma between 1965 and 1980. Since that time, new medications and surgical procedures have become available, which will hopefully decrease the chance of going blind.
"The study does point out, however, the potentially serious risk to sight that glaucoma poses, and suggests that early detection is important. This is especially true as the population ages and the number of elderly increases," says Dr. Johnson.
In the United States, it is estimated that three million people have glaucoma and 120,000 people are blind as a result of the disease. Researchers estimate that glaucoma could affect nearly 68 million people worldwide by the year 2000 and may cause blindness in both eyes in almost seven million people.
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