How is the glaucoma patient
or the glaucoma suspected patient examined?

To make certain about the diagnosis, to determine the stage of the affection and to control the effectiveness of a treatment, the ophthalmic surgeon can choose among several method:

1. Examination of the eye-pressure: either with the applanation or air tonometer the pressure is measured, after the eye has been locally anaesthetized with eye-drops.

2. Examination of the visual field: in this case the patient has to fix a point with one eye and then he has to indicate, without moving the eye, whether he sees a bright spot left or right under or above that fixed point. The intensity, the size and the place of the bright spot are continually varying.

3. The examination of the retina and the optic nerve with the ophthalmoscope, after dilatation of the pupil.

4. Examination of the eyeball with a contact lens and the microscope on the spot where the fluid of the anterior chamber of the eye is drained (Trabecular meshwork).

5. The examination of eventual fluctuations of the eye-pressure during the day, the so-called day-curve.