CILIARY BODY ABLATION - WHERE ARE WE AND HOW DID WE GET HERE

Management of intraocular pressure remains the cornerstone of glaucoma treatment Related medical and surgical practices involve increasing a queous outflow or decreasing aqueous production. Filtration procedures that increase aqueous outflow are the first-line surgical defense in glaucoma. However, some cases of glaucoma are resistant to such treatm ent. In these cases, ciliary body ablation by various methods has had substantial success. Surgical manipulation of aqueous production has b een used in glaucoma management since the turn of the century. Techniq ues have progressed markedly as technology has produced more discrete therapies designed to decrease aqueous production by destroying ciliar y body epithelium. Over the past 90 years success has been achieved wi th a wide range of techniques, from surgical disinsertion of the cilia ry body to recent laser and ultrasound techniques. With the developmen t of more precise contact lasers and endoscopic visualization, side ef fects have been reduced and clinical success rates increased.