[Facing up to the existence of preperimetric glaucoma]

Primary open-angle glaucoma is a chronic progressive optic neuropathy. There is no symptom in the early stage of the disease, but in the middle and late stages, it is difficult to be controlled and can lead to irreversible blindness. Therefore, the early diagnosis and treatment of the disease is very important. For a long time, a visual field defect has been an important standard for its diagnosis. In recent years, however, preperimetric glaucoma (PPG) has been paid much attention, which is the very early stage of open-angle glaucoma. Although the visual field is normal, there is glaucomatous optic neuropathy in PPG eyes, which may progress to visual field defects. By expounding and analyzing the definition, mechanism, clinical evidence, diagnostic methods and therapeutic value of PPG, this article puts forward the view that facing up to the existence of PPG in clinics is helpful to find the condition of glaucoma early, and timely follow-up and accurate judgement of the treatment opportunity are key to preventing glaucomatous visual field defects.