Comparison of Oculab Tono-Pen readings obtained from various corneal and scleral locations.

When estimating intraocular pressure in patients who are uncooperative or who have central corneal disturbances, the physician may find it either impractical or undesirable to place the small tip of a portable electronic applanation tonometer (Tono-Pen) over the central cornea. To gauge better the usefulness of Tono-Pen readings obtained from various locations, we compared such readings measured through the central cornea, midperipheral cornea, limbal cornea, and sclera of 15 cannulated eye bank eyes. Mean Tono-Pen readings from the midperipheral and clear limbal cornea did not differ significantly from central corneal readings over a 10- to 35-mm Hg range of intraocular pressures and were within +/- 2.4 mm Hg of mean central corneal readings. Mean readings taken from the sclera, however, were 8.8 to 17.0 mm Hg higher than mean central corneal readings over the 10- to 40-mm Hg range. We concluded that multiple noncentral corneal readings with the Tono-Pen provided a useful approximation of intraocular pressure, whereas scleral readings did not.