Conclusions
Glaucoma is a very serious eye disease that can lead to blindness if not treated early. With early diagnosis and treatment, most patients with glaucoma can have their vision restored and enjoy a healthy life. The wide variety of topical effective antiglaucoma drugs that are available today, and a few others that are in the development stage, represent significant advancement in ocular therapeutics. Though these topical ophthalmic preparations have reduced the risk of systemic toxicity to quite an extent, their long-term use causes systemic as well as ocular toxicity. Ideal drug candidates for glaucoma therapy will offer better IOP lowering efficacy with fewer side effects and provide additional means of vision sparing through direct protection of optic nerve. Despite new advances and techniques, it is observed that there is medically uncontrolled intraocular pressure. The ideal medication for this is not yet available. A patient with asthma, bradycardia, hazel eyes, cataracts, systemic allergy to sulfa drugs, and topical allergy to brimonidine might have to proceed with laser trabeculoplasty or glaucoma-filtering surgery.
Research on more advanced antiglaucoma medications continues and promising new directions appear to be the Rho-kinase inhibitors, microtubule-disrupting agents, serotonergics and cannabimimetics. The research is being directed towards applying new molecular and cellular techniques to induce regeneration of mammalian central nervous axons. This will be an important step in therapy for glaucomatous optic nerve atropy.