Ocular Rigidity and Current Therapy

Abstract

Purpose: Ocular rigidity (OR) is an important biomechanical parameter of the eye accounting for the material and geometrical properties of the corneoscleral shell.

Methods: This study used a literature search to review the role of ocular rigidity and the application of potential therapies targeting this parameter in glaucoma and myopia.

Conclusion: Biomechanical modeling and improved understanding of the biochemistry, and molecular arrangement of sclera and its constituents have yielded important insights. Recent developments, including that of a non-invasive and direct OR measurement method and improved ocular imaging techniques are helping to elucidate the role of OR in healthy and diseased eyes by facilitating large scale and longitudinal clinical studies. Improved understanding of OR at the initial stages of disease processes and its alterations with disease progression will undoubtedly propel research in the field. Furthermore, a better understanding of the determinants of OR is helping to refine novel therapeutic approaches which target and alter the biomechanical properties of the sclera in sight-threatening conditions such as glaucoma and myopia.

Keywords:

• Ocular rigidity
• therapy
• glaucoma
• myopia
• scleral cross-linking

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research under Grant 311562 (M.R.L.); the Canadian Space Agency (Grant 1032055, M.R.L.); the Fonds de Recherche en Ophtalmologie de l’Université de Montréal (M.R.L.); the Glaucoma Research Society of Canada (M.R.L.); the Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Santé (D.N.S.) and the Vision Health Research Network (D.N.S.).