THE EFFECT OF HYPERBARIC-OXYGEN BREATHING ON THE VISUAL-FIELD IN GLAUCOMA

Following the hypothesis that chronic ischemia is the main cause of fu nctional deficiency in glaucoma, a double blind clinical experiment wa s carried out to study the effect of hyperbaric oxygenation in 51 glau coma subjects, of which 31 were in the experimental group and 20 in th e control group. In the experimental group there was a significant imp rovement of visual fields (p < 0.05), whereas there was no change in t he subjects in the control group. Hyperbaric oxygen did not have any i nfluence on intraocular pressure. The achieved visual field improvemen ts remained stable for 3 months (p < 0.05), except for I3 and I4 isopt ers of the left eye and I4 isopter of the right eye, while they were c onsiderably reduced after 6 months (p > 0.05).