Posterior capsule opacification
Clinical background Cataract, a pathology of the ocular lens, is the leading cause of blindness worldwide despite the availability of effective surgery in developed countries. According to the World Health…
OPHTHALMOLOGY
Biochemical mechanisms of age-related cataract
Clinical background A cataract is any opacification of the lens. Visually significant cataracts may be present at birth or may occur at any time thereafter, but incidence increases exponentially after…
Wound-healing responses to glaucoma surgery
Clinical background Scarring constitutes the major threat to long-term success after most forms of glaucoma filtration surgery (GFS). Successful modulation of scarring increases the percentage of patients achieving final intraocular…
Exfoliation (pseudoexfoliation) syndrome
Introduction ( Box 24.1 ) Exfoliation syndrome (XFS) is an age-related disease characterized by the production and progressive accumulation of a fibrillar extracellular material in many ocular tissues. First described…
Angle closure glaucoma
Overview Primary angle closure glaucoma (PACG) is an important cause of glaucoma worldwide, especially in East Asia, and the leading cause of bilateral glaucoma blindness in countries such as Singapore,…
Retinal ganglion cell death in glaucoma
Clinical background Glaucoma is a collection of optic neuropathies that exhibit similar clinical phenotypes of thinning of the nerve fiber layer and excavation or cupping of the optic nerve head….
Central nervous system changes in glaucoma
Clinical background Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness and is estimated to affect approximately 67 million people worldwide. The pathological correlate of disease is the loss of retinal…
Pressure-induced optic nerve damage
Clinical background Glaucoma is a disease characterized by “a progressive, chronic optic neuropathy in adults where IOP [intraocular pressure] and other unknown factors contribute to damage and which in the…
Abnormal trabecular meshwork outflow
Clinical background Primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is the most common type of glaucoma, particularly in populations with European and African ancestry. This disease is the leading cause of blindness in…
Pigmentary dispersion syndrome and glaucoma
Overview Pigment dispersion syndrome (PDS) and its potential sequela, pigmentary glaucoma (PG), are characterized by disruption of the iris pigment epithelium (IPE) and subsequent deposition of the dispersed pigment throughout…
