Gonioscopy

Gonioscopy is a method of examining the angle of the anterior chamber of the eye, the place where the eye water flows from the eye. The examination is performed with the help of a special instrument – Gonioscope with one mirror or Goldman contact glass with three mirrors.

Examination of the anterior chamber angle is indispensable in the diagnosis of glaucoma. It is especially necessary when distinguishing the type of Glaucoma. There are primary glaucoma as well as secondary glaucoma as part of other eye diseases.

It is necessary to distinguish between primary glaucoma of open or narrowed-closed angle. It is with gonioscopy that we will make the correct diagnosis, and thus properly treat these completely different types of diseases.

The review describes the degree of openness of the angle according to Shaffer degree 0 when the angle is considered completely closed, to grade 4 when the ventricular angle is completely open. Gonioscopy can also diagnose the degree of accumulation of pigment in the trabeculae, according to the Scheie method, and grade 0 indicates an unpigmented angle, and grade 4 a fully pigmented ventricular angle.
The examination is performed on a biomicroscope, the eye is previously anesthetized, using drops, after that the glass is placed on the eye using a contact gel. The mirror is carefully rotated 360 degrees to see the chamber angle as a whole. The examination is completely painless, it only takes a few minutes. It is performed on a narrow pupil.

Iridocorneal angle observed with the help of a gonioscope