**Author details**

**17. Glaucoma treatment**

Main discoveries where:

288 Glaucoma - Basic and Clinical Aspects

nephrine [51].

**Surgical Treatment of Glaucoma ( 1830-1920 )**

auguring success of the operation.

the scleral spur, and hypotony.

1906 Lagrange first reports on his iridosclerectomy[50].

1915 The abexterno incision is introduced by Foroni[58].

The early treatment of glaucoma has its course of history (Table 1. and Table 2.).

**3.** The discovery of the first three ocular hypotensive drugs: eserine, pilocarpine, and epi‐

1830 Mackenzie1 recommends scleral punctures to release vitreous and to relieve the pressure on the retina.

1882 de Wecker, in a paper on the "filtering cicatrix"9, expresses the concept that in the presence of elevated

1891 Bader [52] finds the occurrence of an iris prolapse during or shortly after an iridectomy a favourable sign,

1903 Herbert reports on a series of subconjunctival fistula operations in which he purposely leaves the iris in the operative incision. The report includes the first detailed description of the transformation of the epibulbar

1905 Heine first reports on the operation of cyclodialysis[54], based on Fuchs' [55] and Axenfeld's[56] observation of the association between postoperative choroidal detachment, a tear or tears in the insertion of the ciliary muscle at

1913 At the first international review of glaucoma surgery the pronouncement is made that chronic glaucoma can

only be arrested by establishing a filtering cicatrix in connection with the anterior chamber. The iridectomy loses

intraocular pressure, a properly executed corneoscleral incision can heal in a manner allowing intraocular fluid to "filter," ie, be driven by a pressure gradient through the loose scar tissue into subconjunctival spaces.

1857 von Graefe's iridectomy6 almost overnight gains the position of *the* glaucoma operation.

**1.** A curative action of the iridectomy in certain glaucomas7,[44],

**2.** The development of the filtering operations [50], and

tissues that become exposed to the steady flow of aqueous [53].

1909 Freeland and Elliot independently substitute the trephine for Lagrange's scissors.

**Table 1.** A summary of the early phases of the glaucoma surgical treatment.

its status of *the* glaucoma operation but still is first in favor for acute glaucoma [57].

1920 Seidel demonstrates the transconjunctival passage of aqueous after trephining procedures[16].

#### Ivan Marjanovic

Glaucoma Department, University Eye Clinic Clinical centre of Serbia and Belgrade Univer‐ sity School of Medicine, Serbia
