Ruptured Filtering Bleb After Ocular Massage

Abstract
Pagenstecher (1878) found that ocular massage reduced intraocular pressure.1 Since then this knowledge has been used for the clinical study of glaucoma (tonography) and for "exercising" filtering blebs after external fistulizing operations. The following case report is one of rupture of a filtering bleb from ocular massage. Report of a Case A 35-year-old Negro man was first seen in April 1964. At that time the patient gave a history of glaucoma known since 1962. The right eye had been blind since 1960. Visual acuity in the left eye was 20/70 with marked field loss. Applanation tensions ranged between 40 and 56. The patient was started on a regimen of medication for glaucoma with good control for a short time. Gradually, the intraocular pressure rose to the mid-30's on echothiophate iodide 0.25% twice a day, l-epinephrine 1% twice a day, and acetazolamide (1,000 mg/day). By May 1965, there was marked