Effect of topical anesthesia on episcleral venous pressure in normal human subjects.

PURPOSE Topical anesthetics can reduce episcleral venous pressure (EVP) and IOP in rabbits. In this study, we investigated the effect of topical anesthesia on EVP in normal human subjects. METHODS We included in this study 30 eyes of 15 healthy volunteers who were habitual soft contact lens wearers. The EVP was measured before and at 5 and 10 minutes after instillation of topical proparacaine 0.5% in one eye. The EVP was measured by using a custom objective venomanometer. We compared EVP at 5 and 10 minutes after proparacaine to EVP before instilling proparacaine. RESULTS There was no significant difference between EVP in eyes receiving topical anesthetic at 5 or 10 minutes (7.2 ± 2.2 and 7.6 ± 2.7 mm Hg, respectively; mean ± SD) compared to contralateral eyes (6.9 ± 2.5 and 7.3 ± 2.6 mm Hg, respectively; P > 0.10). As well, EVP was not significantly different 5 or 10 minutes after topical anesthesia compared to baseline in either the eyes receiving anesthetic or the contralateral eyes (all P > 0.10; minimum detectable difference, 1.4-1.9 mm Hg, α = 0.05, β = 0.20, n = 30 eyes). CONCLUSIONS The EVP in human eyes is not affected significantly by topical anesthetics.