To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Healio/Ocular Surgery News, the Associate Medical Editors are sharing what they think are the most important ophthalmic innovations of the 1980s.
Leon W. Herndon Jr., MD: The history of glaucoma pharmacology begins in 1862 with the isolation of physostigmine from the West African Calabar bean, which caused pupils to constrict. It was initially used for miosis in iridectomy cases and was then found to lower IOP and break angle-closure attacks.
However, there were not many medical options for patients with glaucoma until the later part of the 20th century when