Prostaglandins
The prostaglandins burst on the clinical scene in the 1990s and have become one of the mainstays of glaucoma treatment around the world. As a class, they are very potent…
Medical treatment of glaucoma: general principles
The ultimate goal of glaucoma treatment is to preserve enough vision during the patient’s lifetime to meet their functional needs; ideally, treatment should also delay, stop, and sometimes reverse the…
The adrenergic system and adrenergic agonists
Adrenergic agonists have been used as ocular hypotensive agents since 1900 when Darier treated glaucoma patients with subconjunctival injections of epinephrine. Two decades later, Hamburger applied epinephrine topically to reduce…
Carbonic anhydrase inhibitors
Carbonic anhydrase inhibitors (CAIs) continue to be the only systemic agents used for the long-term treatment of glaucoma, if only occasionally. A topical version introduced more than 40 years after…
Adrenergic antagonists
In 1967 Phillips and co-workers reported that an intravenous injection of propranolol, a β-adrenergic antagonist, lowered intraocular pressure (IOP) in humans. Within a short time, other investigators found that oral…
Genetics of glaucoma
INTRODUCTION That primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and, especially, glaucoma occurring in childhood or associated with other developmental anomalies had familial characteristics has been known since the mid nineteenth century. Von…
Primary open angle glaucoma
Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) can be considered a chronic, progressive, anterior optic neuropathy that is accompanied by a characteristic cupping and atrophy of the optic disc, visual field loss, open…
Introduction to patient management
Despite the fact that there are many different types of glaucoma with different manifestations, diagnostic approaches, and treatment modalities, this chapter summarizes some of the generalizable concepts of glaucoma management….
Clinical interpretation of gonioscopic findings
GRADING OF CHAMBER ANGLE There has been an evolution in the clinical methods used to describe the anterior chamber angle. An earlier scheme described by Scheie emphasized the most posteriorly…
Visual field interpretation
GLAUCOMATOUS CHANGES IN THE VISUAL FIELD Damage in glaucoma can be conveniently divided into two types: structural and functional. Structural damage to the eye is seen as a characteristic abnormality…
