Effects of Superior Cervical Ganglionectomy on Aqueous Humor Dynamics

Abstract

Various studies have been performed previously by several investigators regarding the relationship between the sympathetic nervous system and intraocular pressure. Out of such studies has come much controversy involving the effects of different types of anesthesia used by various investigators. Through the use of local anesthesia in a particular phase of our experiment, we have endeavored to arrive at certain values by tonographic measurements which, apparently, were not obtainable under similar experimental conditions when general anesthesia was employed. Early reviews were made by such investigators as Thiel,¹⁶Magitot,¹¹and Duke-Elder.²Such studies were also made at a later date by Weinstein.¹⁷Loewenstein and Schoenberg¹⁴concluded from pupillographic studies that the central sympathetic factor plays a definite role in the beginning of primary simple glaucoma. Jaffe,⁶in later experiments, produced a drop in intraocular pressure in the eyes of cats following cervical sympathectomy operations. Following