Congenital glaucoma in neonatal rubella.

A RAISED intra-ocular pressure associated with decreased outflow facility, a progressively enlarging cornea, and atrophy of the optic nerve have been described in neonatal infants born to mothers who acquired rubella during the first trimester of pregnancy (Swan, Tostevin, Moore, Mayo, and Black, 1943; Rones, 1944; Long and Danielson, 1945; Prendergast, 1946; Guerry, 1946; Irvine, 1946; Bardram and Braendstrup, 1947; Zewi, 1948; Hogan, 1958; Waardenburg, Franceschetti, and Klein, 1961; Fran9ois, 1963; Chandler and Grant, 1965; Alfano, 1966; Costenbader, 1966; Geltzer, Guber, and Sears, 1966; Kaufman, 1966; Maumenee, Monif, Jarrett, Hardy, and Sever, 1966; Roy, 1966; Weiss, Cooper, and Green, 1966). An analysis of the incidence and characteristics of congenital glaucoma in these patients meets two difficulties: (1) Does the lesion described meet the diagnostic criteria of congenital glaucoma? (2) Was the mother really infected with the rubella virus? The second question can be circumvented by limiting our analysis to those infants who have a diagnosis of rubella substantiated by either positive viral culture or serology (Geltzer and others, 1966). The first question is not so easily settled because of these factors: (i) The relatively frequent occurrence of corneal opacities, both transient and permanent, mild and severe, in these babies (Gregg, 1941; Auw-Yang Sien, 1951; Swan, 1951; Reese and Ellsworth, 1966; Roy, 1966);