Eyes might be the windows to the soul, but they don't like to give up their own secrets, especially with diseases such as glaucoma.
Musician and filmmaker Stelth Ng should know; he's spent a decade in and out of the hospital because of his eyes.
Stelth, 26, has had more than 16 surgeries in both eyes as a result of various conditions, including cataracts, dislocation of his intraocular lenses, multiple retinal detachments, corneal edema and glaucoma. As a result, he is completely blind in his right eye and uses his left eye to see.
"When people talk about glaucoma, they're usually talking about primary open-angle glaucoma," says Dr. Graham Trope, Senior Scientist at the Krembil Research Institute and Co-Director of Glaucoma Service at the Donald K. Johnson Eye Institute. He is also Stelth's ophthalmologist and has been treating him for the past six years.
"[Primary open-angle glaucoma is] the most common form of glaucoma in North America. It affects about 65 million people in the world. That's projected to increase to about 76 million or so in 2020. With the aging boomers, glaucoma is becoming more and more common."
The Krembil Research Institute and the Globe and Mail have teamed up for a special content project designed to highlight the tremendous accomplishments of our scientists and research programs at Krembil. The first of three magazines in this series looked at the brain and spine program and was released in the spring. A second magazine highlighting the vision program is now available online and a the third in the series will explore the arthritis program later this year.
