Glaucoma
Introduction
Exfoliation glaucoma is one of the most common forms of glaucoma, the second-leading cause of vision loss in the United States, after age-related macular degeneration.
Glaucoma is a chronic disease that can damage the optic nerve — the bundle of nerve fibers that carries signals from the back of your eye to your brain — and lead to progressive loss of vision. Often, though not always, it is associated with elevated pressure in your eyeball.
Elevated eye pressure occurs when, for reasons that are not well understood, the clear liquid that circulates inside the eyeball to deliver nutrients and carry away waste stops draining properly. In a healthy eye, this liquid, the aqueous humor, is produced at the same rate that it drains, maintaining normal pressure inside the eyeball. In glaucoma, production exceeds drainage.
Exfoliation glaucoma is estimated to affect about 1 to 2 percent of the general population, and 10 to 20 percent of the population over the age of 60. It is a subtype of open-angle glaucoma, the most common type of glaucoma.