This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
J.G.F. Worst, MD, of the Netherlands has conducted an intensive clinical investigation of the pathogenesis and treatment of congenital glaucoma. He met the need for accurate observation of the angle by devising an ingenious series of diagnostic and surgical gonioscopic contact lenses. Insight into the pathogenetic significance of clinical observations was achieved by a thorough study of the embryological development of the chamber angle. This book is a detailed report of this investigation. It is not intended to be a general textbook on congenital glaucoma.
The author is convinced that he has confirmed the findings of Otto Barkan, namely, that in most cases of congenital glaucoma the angle is blocked by a cellophane-like imperforate endothelial membrane overlying a band of persistent mesodermal tissue (uveal meshwork), that the presence of this tissue and concomitant altered structural relationships represent persistence of a fetal condition of the chamber angle, and that goniotomy relieves