Disk hemorrhages and retinal vein occlusions in glaucoma.

There are several reasons to consider disk hemorrhages, branch retinal vein occlusions and central retinal vein occlusion as manifestations of the same vascular disease, the only difference among them being the size of the vessel affected. There is a close association of these vascular events with open angle glaucoma, and all of them increase with increasing follow-up time. The morphological changes described in the retinal veins in glaucoma and in central vein occlusions are endothelial proliferations causing progressive increase of flow resistance. Similar changes most probably also cause branch vein occlusions and disk hemorrhages. This vascular condition which obstructs the vessels with hindrance of the blood flow and impaired nutrition of neuronal tissue might be the primary cause of glaucoma.