Pharmacological Denervation and Glaucoma : Springer : 9789400986763 : 9400986769 : 25 Dec 2011 : Glaucoma simplex or open angle glaucoma is a slow, progressive illness with an insidious course which can lead to blindness. According to our con­ temporary state of knowledge, the illness begins with a decreased outflow of aqueous humor. This leads, sometimes after a period of decreased aqueous humor production due to a feedback mechanism, to an increase in intra­ ocular pressure (lOP). An elevated lOP can eventually lead to optic nerve damage, which manifests itself morphologically as glaucomatous papillary excavation and functionally in the development of a visual field defect. The classic triad of elevated lOP, papillary excavation and visual field defect, on which the diagnosis of glaucoma was also based in earlier times, is then pre­ sent. To this can now only be added that tonography usually shows a de­ crease in aqueous humor outflow and that gonioscopy must reveal an open angle. On