Intravenous acetazolamide as initial treatment for acute angle closure glaucoma

ABSTRACT

Various treatments have been utilized to manage acute angle closure glaucoma [AACG]. However, little data is available to assess the role of intravenous acetazolamide and various factors that may determine its effectiveness. We treated 13 patients [15 eyes] with intravenous acetazolamide at a dose of 10-15 mg/kg body weight and monitored the decrease in intraocular pressure [IOP] for 1 hour. Average IOP decreased significantly from baseline [27.4% +/- 19.8, P<0.01]. As single agent, however, acetazolamide was able to break the glaucoma attack in only three eyes [20%]. Neither initial IOP nor duration of the angle closure attack seemed to influence the response to acetazolamide. The IOP reduction using intravenous acetazolamide was not sufficient in the majority of eyes to substantiate use of this agent alone to break attacks of AACG