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Abstract
The effect of compression on the eye was shown to vary significantly with age and to involve a suppression of infloto rate. The recovery from the compression effect toas shown to be dependent upon appropriate changes in outflow facility and the recovery of the suppressed inflow rate. In the older age group, absence of change in outflow facility and the inability of the suppressed inflow to recover led to failure of the postcompression pressure to show any attempt at recovering the precompression level. These findings led to the conclusion that the sensitivity of the eye to changes in intraocular pressure level, as well as its ability to vary and recover from changes in its steady state dynamics, are markedly reduced, with age. In the younger age group, the effect of compression was drastically modified by pharmacologic agents in a manner simulating the behavior of the older age group. The sympathomimetic and the parasympatholytic agents used reduced the sensitivity of the inflow process to convpression. Pharmacologic agents affecting outflow facility prevented the recovery process; those that spared outflow facility but suppressed the inflow rate did not interfere with the recovery process.