Hello and welcome to a new series of the zero to finals podcast where we're covering

ophthalmology. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking about open angle

glaucoma. And if you want to follow along with written notes on this topic, as always you can

follow along at zero to finals.com slash open angle glaucoma or in the ophthalmology section of the zero to finals medicine

book. So let's get straight into it. Glorcoma refers to the optic nerve damage that's caused by a

significant rise in intraocular pressure.

The intraocular pressure is essentially the pressure within the eye itself.

Raised intraocular pressure is caused by a blockage in the aqueous humor trying to escape the eye.

And we'll talk more about the pathophysiology shortly.

There are two types of glaucoma,

open angle and closed angle. And here we're going to be talking about open angle. So let's talk about the basic anatomy and physiology, because it's important to understand some basic anatomy and

physiology of the eye and how the eye functions

in order to understand the path of physiology of glaucoma. The vitreous chamber of the eye

is filled with vitreous humor and this is the main bulk, the main area of the eye. The anterior chamber is between the cornea and the

iris and the posterior chamber is between the lens and the iris. These anterior and posterior

chamber are filled with aqueous humour that supplies nutrients to the cornea and keeps it healthy.

The acreous humour is produced by the ciliary body,

and then the acreous humour flows around the iris from the posterior chamber

into the anterior chamber, where it drains through something called the trabecular meshwork

at the angle between the cornea and the iris.

The aqueous humour flows from the ciliary body around the lens and under the iris

through the anterior chamber, through the trabecular meshwork and into something called the canal

...