A CDA Press news report examines the results of a Hokkaido University study that studied the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea and glaucoma.
Hokkaido University in Japan has a group of scientists who have studied the relationship between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and glaucoma, and they have found that there can be damage to the optic nerve in patients with OSA. But the interesting thing is that the lack of oxygen due to the OSA does not cause a brief sharp increase in eye pressure. Therefore, these patients with glaucoma have normal eye pressures.
Glaucoma is a disease where the optic nerve is damaged because of increased eye pressure. Or is it? This study seems to show that the damage may be caused by something else in patients with OSA. Glaucoma causes a smaller field of vision and can result in blindness. But patients with OSA seem to have glaucoma at about ten times the rate of patients who do not have OSA.
