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Vision Information100 million Americans are visually disabled without corrective lenses (70 million are myopic). 80 million people suffer from potentially blinding eye disease. 33,700,000 visits are made to doctors for eye care each year. 11,400,000 people have severe visual conditions not correctible by glasses. 6,400,000 new cases of eye disease occur each year. 2,800,000 people are visually handicapped from color blindness. 1,100,000 people are legally blind. 650,000 people are hospitalized each year for eye injury or disease. CATARACTS is a clouding of the lense, which may be congenital, traumatic, secondary to another visual impairment, or age related. When a cataract is surgically removed, an intraocular lens implant or contact lens or spectacle correction is necessary to provide the refractive function of the absent lens. 5,500,000 people have vision obstructed by cataracts. 3,700,000 visits are made to doctors' offices each year because of cataracts. 1,350,000 cataract extractions are performed each year. 400,000 new cases of cataracts develop each year. GLAUCOMA is a condition characterized by an increase in intraocular pressure, visually associated with a buildup of aqueous fluid, that may cause damage to the nerves of the retina and the optic nerve and eventual field defects if left untreated. The best defense against glaucoma is an eye exam at least once every 2 years because although it can be prevented or cured by surgery if detected before permanent damage occurs, once sight is lost, it can never be corrected. 60 million Americans are at risk for developing glaucoma. 10 million people have above-normal intraocular pressure that may lead to glaucoma. 3 million glaucoma-related office visits are made to doctors each year. 2 million people are visually impaired by glaucoma. 1,000,000 more have the disease but don't know it. 120,000 people are presently blind from glaucoma. 5,500 people become blind each year from the disease. AGE-RELATED MACULAR DEGENERATION (AMD) is a condition associated with vascular diseases such as arteriosclerosis and stroke, in which central vision is gradually lost and acuity may decrease to 20/200 or less, but peripheral vision is usually retained. This is also call Age-related maculopathy. 13 million people have signs of macular degeneration. 6,300,000 people are projected to develop AMD in 2030, compared to 1.7 million in 1995. 1,200,000 people are in the later stages of macular degeneration. 230,000 people are blind from macular degeneration. RETINAL DISEASE consists of a group of diseases mostly caused by diabetes. Diabetic Retinopathy is a range of retinal changes associated with long-standing diabetes; includes nonproliferative (early stages) and proliferative (when blood vessels grow abnormally and fibrous tissues form). Retinitis Pigmentosa is a group of progressive, often heriditary, retinal degenerative diseases that are characterized by decreasing perepheral vision; some progress to tunnel vision, whereas others result in total blindness if the macula also becomes involved. The best defense for the diabetice diseases is to control the diabetes and early treatment. 16 million diabetics are prime targets for blinding disorders. 7 million diabetics suffer from diabetic retinopathy. 700,000 diabetics are presently at risk of blindness. 100,000 people have retinitis pigmentosa (RP). 65,000 diabetics each year develop proliferative diabetic retinopathy, the most sight-threatening stage. 25,000 new cases of blindness are caused annually by complications of diabetes. 25,000 cases of retinal detachment are treated each year. CORNEAL DYSTROPHY is a hereditary defect that causes the cornea to become cloudy; usually occurs later in life. 10 million office visits for corneal problems are made each year. 4,219,000 people have sight impaired by corneal dystrophies. 500,000 cases of herpes are reported each year. 44,000 sight-restoring corneal transplants occur each year. STRABISMUS is an extrinsic muscle imbalance that causes misalignment of the eyes; includes exotropia, hypertropia and hypotropia. 7,500,000 people struggle with strabismus (cross eyes). 5 million people are visually deprived from amblyopia. 2-4% of the population is born with or develop strabismus (the most important cause of visual impairment in children) during their first 6 years of life. UVEITIS is an inflamation of any portion of the uveal tract, which is the vascular layer of the eye, composed of the choroid, ciliary body and iris. 2,300,000 people suffer inflammatory disorders, such as uveitis, which affects the middle layer of tissue behind the white of the eye (sclera) and causes visual impairment. 30,000 cases of blindness are due to uveitis. Almost all blindness In the United States is the result of common eye diseases. Worldwide, 42 million people are blind. |