**Clinical Aspects**

**Chapter 15**

**Neovascular Glaucoma**

Cynthia Esponda-Lammoglia,

http://dx.doi.org/0.5772/53115

**1. Introduction**

**2. Etiology**

Rafael Castaneda-Díez, Gerardo García-Aguirre, Oscar Albis-Donado and Jesús Jiménez-Román

Iris neovascularization and angle closure glaucoma are serious complications of a number of diseases affecting the eye. Pathologic intraocular neovascularization can be potentially

The first report of neovascular glaucoma was made in 1871. It was described as a condition in which the eye developed progressive neovascularization of the iris and lens, elevated in‐ traocular pressure and blindness. First called hemorrhagic glaucoma because of its associa‐ tion with bleeding of the anterior chamber, it has also been called congestive glaucoma,

During the first descriptions of this type of glaucoma, only clinical findings were mentioned, but in 1906, Coats, described the histological findings of new vessels on the iris of an eye with a history of central retinal vein occlusion. In 1928, Salus, described new vessels on the irises of diabetic patients. In 1937, with the introduction of clinical gonioscopy, the new ves‐ sels found in the angle and the histological findings were correlated, explaining the mecha‐ nism of angle closure, and in 1963, Weiss and colleagues, proposed the term neovascular

There are many systemic disease and ocular conditions that cause neovascular glaucoma, but they all share a common etiology, which is retinal ischemia, and hypoxia that triggers a

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© 2013 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution,

glaucoma, which includes the real cause of the rise in intraocular pressure.

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

blinding if not detected and treated promptly.

rubeotic glaucoma and diabetic hemorrhagic glaucoma.
