IOP: Target pressures

Abstract

Target intraocular pressure (IOP) is a useful clinical concept in a chronic disease requiring long-term treatment. Estimating a target pressure and recording this number in the medical record helps to remind a clinician of the initial assessment of the patient's disease. Also, it can be helpful to have a reference IOP against which to compare IOP measurements over years of follow-up, since IOP level is strongly related to the risk of developing glaucoma and to progressive glaucoma damage [1-6]. The use of a target IOP, however, does not have to be taken as mandatory in clinical practice, as the scientific evidence over the concept is not yet overwhelmingly convincing. The European Glaucoma Society guidelines define target IOP as an estimate of the mean IOP obtained with treatment that is expected to prevent further glaucomatous damage and suggest taking life expectancy and glaucoma stage into account when setting the target IOP (for example, target IOP should be lower if life expectancy is long and/or if glaucoma is advanced) [7]. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.