Painful eye in neovascular glaucoma and its treatment with cryocoagulation

The author summarizes the present knowledge concerning the treatment of pain in neovascular glaucoma. The treatment of the pain is very closely connected with a good compensation of the intraocular pressure. The author did not find a correlation between the degree of the elevated intraocular pressure and the ocular pain. He compares the results of the treatment of ocular pain in neovascular glaucoma with cyclo-cryocoagulation as a single method with those of the method of trans-scleral panretinal cryocoagulation in combination with cyclo-cryocoagulation performed in one session. In the treatment of ocular pain, markedly better results were achieved by using trans-scleral panretinal cryocoagulation in combination with cyclo-cryocoagulation. Complete relief from pain was achieved the fifth postoperative day in 54.5% when only cyclo-cryocoagulation was performed, in 100% when trans-scleral panretinal cryocoagulation was carried out in combination with cyclo-cryocoagulation. According to the author, this stands in connection with the better compensation of the intraocular pressure after the combined cryosurgical intervention and, in all probability, also with the assumed analgesic effect of panretinal cryocoagulation, which is obviously due to damage to the sensitive nerves of the bulb during freezing of the sclera an the choroid.