Are soreness and pain of the eye caused by glaucoma?

Soreness and pain of the eye are common symptoms of glaucoma, but soreness or pain of the eye does not necessarily indicate the existence of glaucoma. The following conditions can often cause eye pain:

1. Visal fatigue: This is common seen in people doing close-up work for too long or insufficient sleep. The eye pain is typically a soreness, accompanied with tired to open eyes, tears, or dry eyes. The symptoms are relieved after resting.

2. Conjunctival and cornea problems: In the acute phase, patient often suffers from redness of the conjunctiva, swollen cornea, grinding sensation and stinging eye pain, tearing, photophobia, increasing eye discharge;

3. Scleritis: The symptoms include dark purplish scleral congestion, purple nodule on sclera, photophobia, tearing, distending or dull eye ball pain which is worse when turning the eyes.

4. Supraorbital nerve pain: It manifests as stabbing pain in the orbital area or around the eyes, some patients may have eye ball pain;

Glaucoma is usually caused by obstruction of the water circulation in the eye leading to the elevated intraocular pressure. The eye pain usually manifests as distending pain or orbital pain or feels soreness in the root of the nose. Some patients may also have sudden or gradually vision loss, headache, migraines, nausea and vomiting. Once there is an acute attack of glaucoma, the patient needs immediately ophthalmic emergency care to reduce intraocular pressure, improve water circulation in the eye to rescue visual function so as to not cause permanent damage of the vision. When the acute condition is under control, acupuncture and Chinese herbs can help to improve the circulation of the water, reduce the eye pressure and maintain the eye pressure in a normal range.

Dr. Rui Quan Li

09/28/2011