Antiadrenergic Drugs And Drugs For Glaucoma Question And Answers
Question 1. Describe The Briefl Role Of Pilocarpine In Glaucoma.
Answer:
Pilocarpine is a cholinergic drug or parasympathomimetic drug. It has prominent muscarinic actions.
Pilocarpine is effective in both types of glaucoma (open-angle as well as closed-angle) though its mechanism in both of them differs:
“Follow-up care after initiating antiadrenergic therapy”
1. Angle Closure/Narrow-Angle/Acute Congestive Glaucoma: Pilocarpine causes contraction of the sphincter pupillae.
This causes the iris mass to spread centrally and reduces the contact of the iris with the lens.
The iridocorneal angle gets widened and the pupillary block is removed.
2. Open Angle Wide Angle/Chronic Simple Glaucoma: Pilocarpine increases the tone of ciliary muscle attached to the scleral spur and sphincter pupillae.
This improves the alignment of the trabeculae to improve the output of the aqueous humor. The intraocular tension is thus lowered.’
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Question 2. Write Drug Treatment Of Acute Congestive Glaucoma.
Answer:
Following is the drug treatment for acute congestive glaucoma:
- Hypertonic mannitol 20% infused IV decongests the eye by osmotic action.
- Acetazolamide 0.5 gm IV followed by oral twice daily
Antiadrenergic Medications: Alpha and Beta Blockers
“Treatment options for glaucoma requiring antiadrenergic drugs”
- Mitotic: As the intraocular tension start falling due to the above IV therapy, pilocarpine 1 to 4% is instilled every 10 min initially and then at longer intervals.
- Topical β blocker: Timolol 0.5% is instilled 12 hours in addition.
- Apraclonidine 1% may be added.
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