Vascular Changes that occur during the Phasic Variations of Tension in Chronic Glaucoma

Abstract

IT is abundantly clear that some relationship exists between ocular tension on the one hand and the state of the perilimbal episcleral vessels on the other. The ciliary congestion associated with acute and sub-acute attacks of con- gestive glaucoma, and the dilatation of the larger vessels of this region in absolute glaucoma, have long been recognized as examples of this relationship. Furthermore, the importance of these vessels in the drainage of aqueous from the anterior chamber has, by gradual stages, been established. The anatomical researches of Schlemm (1831), Rouget (1856), More recently, the discovery of the aqueous veins by Ascher (1942) and Goldmann (1946), and the tracing of these to the canal of Schlemm by Ashton (1951), have confirmed a direct continuity between the anterior chamber and the vessels visible on the surface of the globe.