Glaucoma is not just one eye disease, but a group of eye conditions resulting in optic nerve damage, which may cause loss of vision. Abnormally high pressure inside your eye (intraocular pressure) usually, but not always, causes this damage. The nerve connecting the eye to the brain is damaged. Glaucoma can damage your vision so gradually you may not notice any loss of vision until the disease is at an advanced stage. The most common type of glaucoma, primary open-angle glaucoma, has no noticeable signs or symptoms except gradual vision loss. The consequences of glaucoma can be damage to the optic nerve, which can eventually cause blindness. Early diagnosis and treatment can minimize or prevent optic nerve damage and limit glaucoma-related vision loss. It's important to get your eyes examined regularly, and make sure your eye doctor measures your intraocular pressure.

The subjects in the study were 111 patients with open angle glaucoma who were submitted to treatment by hyperbaric oxygenation. Two groups were formed at random, an experimental one of 91 patients and a control group of 20 patients. The experimental group consisted of four subgroups classified according to the course of treatment they received: 30 sessions (31 patients), 20 sessions (20 patients), 15 sessions (20 patients) and 10 sessions (20 patients). For the treatment a large walk-in recompression chamber was utilized, once a day, at a pressure of 2.0 bars, for 90 minutes. Visual acuity and mean intraocular pressure values taken before and after hyperbaric oxygen treatment did not show a statistically significant difference either between the treated and control subjects, or at control examinations after three and six months. During the follow-up period, changes in the visual field area in control subjects were discrete and statistically not significant. At the same time the visual field values increased after the therapy in all the subgroups. In the 10-session course subgroup the increase was not statistically significant. In all other subgroups, statistical significance was at the level of P < 0.01. Control after three months demonstrated the same level of statistical significance; control at the end of six months failed to show a statistically significant difference. The 20-session course is recommended for initial treatment. When visual field values return to 50 percent of the improved values achieved during initial treatment, it is suggested that hyperbaric oxygen treatment be repeated.