BENIGN OCULAR HYPERTENSION

To the Editor. —Labels have proponents and opponents. They can be useful from the point of view of patients. When a physician is concerned about a patient, this is transmitted to the patient. I think we all might be relieved if an accurate, but non-alarming, label can be attached to these people. In particular, I am referring to patients who on routine examination are found to have normal vision, applanation intraocular pressures of between 22 mm to 27 mm, normal optic discs, normal visual fields on the 1-meter tangent screen, absence of a positive water-provocative test, normal outflow of aqueous, and a normal Po/C value. These people can be observed for a few years and still fail to show findings different from those listed. It seems to me that if this condition is generally observed over a few years, then "benign ocular hypertension" would be a satisfactory name for it,