Trabecular bypass: effect of schlemm canal and collector channel dilation.

Purpose: To theorize the effect of Schlemm canal (SC) and/or collector channel (CC) dilation combined with a trabecular bypass on intraocular pressure (IOP) in eyes with primary open angle glaucoma.

Methods: The elliptic shaped SC is dilated in conjunction with a trabecular bypass and its expanded height is largest at the bypass and linearly deceases to the nondilated height over the dilated circumferential length. The CC dilation is modeled with a reduced outflow resistance of second order polynomial over the same dilated length.

A refractive tilting-plate technique for measurement of dynamic contact angles.

The contact angle is a critical parameter in liquid interface dynamics ranging from liquid spreading on a solid surface on earth to liquid motion in partially filled containers in space. A refractive tilting-plate technique employing a scanning laser beam is developed to conduct an experimental study of a moving contact line, with the intention of making accurate measurements of the contact angle. The technique shows promise as an accurate and potentially fully automated means to determine the velocity dependence of the contact angle at the intersection of the interface between two transparent fluids with a transparent solid surface.

A trabecular bypass flow hypothesis.

Purpose: To introduce a hypothesis that theorizes the effect of a trabecular bypass, a channel created through the trabecular meshwork, on the facility of outflow and the intraocular pressure (IOP).

Methods: Equations that govern the pressure and circumferential flow in Schlemm's canal are established, based on the linear relationships between pressure drop and flow, the balance of flows in the canal, and a uniform leaking structure of collector channels. Two types of bypasses permitting either unidirectional or bidirectional flow are incorporated through boundary conditions to solve the equations and to derive the facility of outflow and the reduced IOP.

Trabecular bypass stents decrease intraocular pressure in cultured human anterior segments.

Purpose: To determine the effect on intraocular pressure (IOP) of bypassing the trabecular meshwork in cultured human anterior segments.

Design: Prospective laboratory investigation using normal human eyes obtained at autopsy.

Methods: Anterior segments from 21 eyes were placed in perfusion culture, and trabecular bypass stents were inserted through the trabecular meshwork, with the lumen of the tube opening into Schlemm's canal.