Microwave cyclodestruction for glaucoma in a rabbit model.

Microwave thermotherapy was used to treat experimentally induced glaucoma. Microwave-induced cyclodestruction was successful in reducing intraocular pressure in all treated glaucomatous eyes for 4 weeks. Two additional glaucomatous eyes were left untreated to serve as controls, and were noted to have persistently elevated intraocular pressures. Six additional eyes were then subjected to an equivalent treatment (50 degrees C in five 1-minute applications), which resulted in approximately 180 degrees of heat treatment just posterior to the corneoscleral limbus. These specimens were evaluated with light microscopy at baseline, 24 hours, and 7 days after treatment. Our clinical and histopathologic evaluations suggested that microwave thermotherapy (delivered under thermometry control) allowed for chorioretinal/ciliary body destruction that resulted in reductions of intraocular pressure in glaucomatous eyes.