The outflow tract in pigmentary glaucoma: a light and electron microscopic study
T. M. Richardson, B. T. Hutchinson and W. M. Grant
Buttons obtained by trephination from both eyes of a 44-year-old myopic man
with pigmentary glaucoma were studied by light and electron microscopy.
Although clinically both eyes exhibited heavy pigmentation of the
trabecular meshwork in the whole circumference, microscopically the
trabecular meshwork of the left eye contained more pigment granules than
that of the right eye, which appeared relatively acellular with collapse of
the trabecular sheets. In both eyes endothelial cells covering the
trabecular sheets were filled with pigment and showed various stages of
degeneration. The intertrabecular spaces contained free pigment granules as
well as cell debris. These observations suggest that plugging of the
trabecular spaces by pigment and cell debris together with fragmentation
and collapse of trabecular sheets contribute to the decrease in the
facility of outflow that occurs in pigmentary glaucoma.
