If you have glaucoma – whatever object you focus on will appear clear & crisp, but there would be an area to the side of your focus which will be blurry. But as soon as you gaze at the blurry area it becomes crisp because now you are focusing on that area – and so now a different area on side will become blurry.
This is why it is very difficult to perceive early peripheral visual field defects and not surprisingly glaucoma is called the ‘sneak thief of vision’. In advanced glaucoma, when a lot of peripheral field is lost, the reduced field of vision may be more obvious. The area around an object will appear dark.

In general, unchecked glaucoma causes a painless and symptomless progression towards blindness.

The Glaucoma Symptom Scale (GSS) allows quantification of symptoms in patients with glaucoma. It consists of a 10-item scale developed from the symptom checklist that was created for the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study (OHTS). All items in the GSS address eye complaints, some of a non-visual nature and some of a visual nature, common to patients with glaucoma.
The Glaucoma Symptom Scale measures symptoms of glaucoma as well as symptoms of glaucoma treatment. It provides a valid and reliable estimate of symptoms associated with glaucoma and its treatments (Arch Ophthalmol.1998;116:861-6). The normal score is 100 and implies absence of all glaucoma related symptoms. If you have symptoms of glaucoma, the score will be less than 100, the lower the score the greater the symptoms. In the study, the mean score of patients with glaucoma was 70.


The Glaucoma Symptom Scale

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