General surgical care
THE SURGICAL DECISION The decision to operate on any eye is a serious one that glaucoma surgeons confront in two basic situations. The first is when the intraocular pressure (IOP)…
Hyperosmotic agents
Although the effect of hyperosmotic agents on intraocular pressure (IOP) has been known for almost a century, these agents became widely used in ophthalmology only in the past 40 years….
Secondary angle-closure glaucoma
OVERVIEW OF TERMS AND MECHANISMS The diseases discussed in this chapter share a final common pathway of angle closure and obstruction of outflow, but they are associated with contributory or…
Developmental and childhood glaucoma
The developmental glaucomas are a group of disorders characterized by improper development of the eye’s aqueous outflow system, usually manifesting in infancy and childhood. Glaucoma in the infant is an…
Secondary open angle glaucoma
PIGMENTARY GLAUCOMA Pigmentary glaucoma is a secondary form of open-angle glaucoma produced by pigment dispersion in the anterior segment of the eye. This condition constitutes 1.0–2.5% of the glaucomas seen…
Optic nerve imaging
Glaucoma is an optic neuropathy with characteristic optic nerve appearance and visual field loss for which elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) is one of the main risk factors. This characteristic optic…
Clinical evaluation of the optic nerve head
There are several practical consequences of discarding intraocular pressure (IOP) as central to the definition of glaucoma. One is that the clinician must become proficient at examining the optic nerve…
Primary angle closure glaucoma
HISTORICAL REVIEW AND CLASSIFICATIONS The Hippocratic aphorisms include two mentions of blindness, one of which may refer to glaucoma: ‘When headache develops in cases of ophthalmia and accompanies it for…
Optic nerve anatomy and pathophysiology
In the past decades, two significant changes have impacted how we contextualize the pathogenic mechanisms of primary open-angle glaucoma. The first change is clinically relevant: the elimination of intraocular pressure…
Cholinergic drugs
The cholinergic drugs are the oldest effective medical treatment for glaucoma. More than 100 years ago, Laqueur used physostigmine (eserine), an extract from the Calabar or ordeal bean, for the…
