Hemolytic glaucoma.

The clinical manifestations of hemolytic glaucoma in five patients showed that the glaucoma began after a large intraocular hemorrhage. Gonioscopy revealed open angles in the anterior chamber and reddish-brown pigment covering the trabecular meshwork. Numerous red-tinted blood cells were floating in the aqueous humor; some of these were macrophages found by cytologic examination to contain golden-brown pigment granules. The presumed cause of hemolytic glaucoma is obstruction of the trabecular meshwork by fragments of hemolyzed red blood cells and hemoglobin-laden macrophages. Two patients, whose intraocular pressures were not decreased with medication, improved remarkably after irrigation of hemolytic debris from the anterior chamber.