[Ocular hypertension and glaucoma: 2 clinical entities?].

Are the ocular hypertension and glaucoma two different clinical entities? Recent researches show that ocular hypertension can have an evolution period, of about five years, without clinical manifestations of glaucoma. In ocular hypertension, the atrophy of the retinal nerve precedes with many years the appearance of the perimetric deficits. Retinographies in non-erythro light show a destruction, up to 40%, of the nerve fibres of the retina without evident perimetric modifications. The conclusion is reached that intraocular hypertension is only an incipient stage of a glaucoma not yet detected by the clinical means available.