2020–2021 BCSC Basic and Clinical Science Course™
6 Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus
Chapter 1: The Pediatric Eye Examination
Examination: Specific Elements
Intraocular Pressure Measurement
It is not always easy or possible to perform formal tonometry in children. Tonometry requires a relaxed patient. With a nonthreatening approach and experience, the practitioner may find that accurate testing is possible in children by using handheld devices such as the Icare tonometer (Icare Finland Oy, Helsinki, Finland) or Tono-Pen (Reichert Technologies, Depew, NY). The Tono-Pen or the Perkins Tonometer (Haag-Streit USA, Mason, OH) may be used to test infants when they are sleeping or feeding in the supine position.
Digital palpation, though not quantitative, can provide a gross assessment of intraocular pressure. Interpretation of the findings requires practice and involves correlation with formal tonometry results obtained in the same patient.
Excerpted from BCSC 2020-2021 series: Section 10 - Glaucoma. For more information and to purchase the entire series, please visit https://www.aao.org/bcsc.