Immunology and glaucoma

Abstract

Glaucoma, although once thought of as a single disease, is actually a group of diseases of the optic nerve involving loss of retinal ganglion cells. The process of cell death occurs in a characteristic pattern of optic neuropathy - a broad term for a certain pattern of damage to the optic nerve (the bundle of nerve fibers that carries information from the eye to the brain). Untreated glaucoma leads to permanent damage of the optic nerve and resultant visual field loss that can progress to permanent blindness. © 2010 Springer-Verlag New York.