Reduction of Intraocular Pressure and Glaucoma Progression

Abstract

STARTING IN THE 1960s, epidemiological studies demonstrated that normal-tension glaucoma was much more common than previously thought and that ocular hypertension, or elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) without glaucomatous visual field defects or optic disc cupping, was more common than glaucoma.^1-3 Subsequent studies showed that relatively few patients with ocular hypertension developed signs of glaucomatous damage during follow-up periods of up to 20 years, even if the condition was left untreated.^4-8 The earlier concept that basically equated elevated IOP with glaucoma became obsolete, resulting in uncertainty of the effects of glaucoma treatment.