Pre- and post-operative acetazoleamide (diamox) in glaucoma surgery.

ACETAZOLEAMIDE (Diamox) has been used to lower temporarily the intraocular pressure in eyes with raised tension (Becker, 1954; Agarwal and Saxena, 1955), in restoring flat chambers after intra-ocular operations (Murphy, 1954; Thrope, 1955a; Agarwal, Sharma, and Malik, 1955), as a pre-operative measure in cataract surgery to diminish the incidence of complications, and to complete the operation without iridectomy (Agarwal and Malik, 1957). Thorpe (1955b) used the drug as a prophylactic measure in glaucoma surgery, starting 4 to 6 hours after operation in six cases, and showed that acetazoleamide seemed to assist the early restoration and maintenance of the anterior chamber. He also concluded, however, that the lowered intra-ocular pressure might lead to minimal cystic filtration bleb formation in the surgical drainage area, and might therefore contraindicate its use. He says that the series is rather small to draw any tentative conclusions. The purpose of this paper is to report on the use of acetazoleamide as a prophylactic, beginning at least 2 days before operation.