What causes glaucoma?
Most common risk factor
The main risk factor that can trigger glaucoma is ocular hipertension. This condition usually occurs because, the aqueous humor (fluid that bathes the inner eye) does not drain properly and builds up, putting excessive pressure on the optic nerve and causing a “stress” that it cannot withstand.
Other risk factors
However, there are people with elevated intraocular pressure who do not develop glaucoma and patients with normal values (less than 21 mm Hg pressure) who, on the contrary, develop the pathology.
It must be taken into account that glaucoma is not only the consequence of a “mechanical” defect in the drainage system of the aqueous humor, but it is also a multifactorial disease whose origin is still little known. Research is being carried out in this field and it is suspected that vascular problems may be associated with cases of glaucoma with normal intraocular pressure, since the blood vessels inside the eyeball are among the finest in the body and therefore particularly fragile.
Hereditary factors
On the other hand, genetic predisposition is a major factor in certain types of glaucoma, such as open-angle (familial) primary glaucoma – the most common – or congenital glaucoma – which appears in the first months of life – and juvenile glaucoma.