[Long-term study of chronic glaucoma treated with beta blockers (timolol)]

In the study presented here the authors documented 50 patients with chronic glaucoma, aged between 42 and 86, who were followed up on an outpatient basis for a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 6 years. The results can be summarized as follows: 1) treatment with timolol resulted in an average lowering of intraocular pressure by 6 mm Hg, without any fall-off in effect over several years; 2) there was no deterioration in visual fields or visual acuity during treatment with timolol, and in some cases there was an improvement; 3) in the cases of angle-closure glaucoma the therapy was combined with pilocarpine; this resulted in a greater lowering of pressure than that achieved by treatment with timolol alone in cases of open-angle glaucoma.