Reaction Paper On Glaucoma

CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION

1. INTRODUCTION
Glaucoma is the second commonest cause of visual disability in the world. [1] It affects between 70 and 90 million people, with about 10% of them becoming blind in both eyes.[2] Glaucoma is often called “The sneak thief of sight” because most of the time, it shows no symptoms until there is irreversible vision loss. It is a disease with a characteristic of a higher level of intraocular pressure (IOP) which might progressively hurt visibility.
The constraint of physiological factors, the ocular bioavailability of ophthalmic preparations is much lower than other dosing route due to factors such as lacrimal drainage, reflex tearing and drug spoilage onto the cheek.[3] Glaucoma

Other causes of secondary glaucoma are inflammation in the iris of the eye (iritis), diabetes, cataracts, or in steroid-susceptible individuals, the use of topical (drops) or systemic (oral or injected) steroids (cortisone). It can also be associated with a retinal detachment or retinal vein occlusion or blockage. (The retina is the layer that lines the inside of the back of the eye.) The treatments for the secondary glaucoma vary, depending on the cause.
• Pigmentary glaucoma is a type of secondary glaucoma that is more common in younger men. In this condition granules of pigment detach from the iris, which is the colored part of the eye. These granules then may block the trabecular meshwork . Finally, the blocked drainage system leads to elevated intraocular pressure, which results in damage to the optic nerve.
• Exfoliative glaucoma (pseudoexfoliation) is another type of glaucoma that can occur with either open or closed angles. It is characterized by deposits of flaky material on the front surface of the lens (anterior capsule) and in the angle of the eye. The accumulation of this material will block the drainage system of the eye and raise the eye intraocular pressure. This type of glaucoma can occur in any population and it is most prevalent in older people and people of Scandinavian descent.
1.2.2 Closed angle

The specific aim of designing a therapeutic system is to achieve the optimal concentration of a drug entity at the active site for the appropriate duration.[28]
The most common method of the ocular drug delivery is the instillation of drops in to the lower cul-de-sac. Such drops are usually drained quickly, aided by the blinking reflex, the pre corneal region returns to the normal resident volume of around 7µl. The concentration of drug in the precorneal areas provides the driving forces for its transport across the cornea via passive diffusion. Thus, good corneal penetration requires prolonged contact time with