[Posttraumatic glaucoma].

INTRODUCTION

Ocular trauma is an important cause of blindness among young people. Injuries of the iridocorneal angle cause ocular hypertonia and postcontusive glaucoma. The purpose of this work is to study clinical and therapeutic particularities of postcontusive ocular hypertonia.

METHODS

This is a retrospective study on 13 patients (12 men and 1 woman) with ocular hypertonia as a result of contusive trauma of the iridocorneal angle, with no hyphema or lens dislocation. Patients were 16 to 38 years old.

RESULTS

Ocular hypertonia appeared between 1 week and 6 months after the trauma. The lesions involved were cyclodialysis (2 cases), angle recession (11 cases) and iridodialysis (2 cases). Ocular hypertonia was complicated in 6 cases by contusive glaucoma (as shown by optic disk examination and visual field exploration). The balancing of intraocular pressure was obtained by local treatment in only 9 cases and by trabeculectomy in 5 cases.

DISCUSSION

The authors discuss the physiopathology, therapeutic particularities as well as the prognostics of contusive ocular hypertonia by iridocorneal angle damage.

CONCLUSION

Screening for ocular hypertonia must be regular and systematic after ocular trauma involving lesion of the iridocorneal angle.