Abstract:  Objective To determine the feasibility of lamina cribrosa puncture in intraocular pressure (IOP) reduction in rabbit eyes. Design Experiment study. Participants 4 healthy adult New Zealand rabbits (4 eyes). Methods Four healthy adult New Zealand rabbits were selected and 3 randomly for the experimental group to puncture lamina cribrosa and implant drainage tube. A sham rabbit eye with vitrectomy was used as a control. All surgeries were performed on the right eye only, with no treatment gived to the left eye. Intraocular pressure (IOP) was measured at pre-operative and postoperative 7 consecutive days, 18th day, 20th day, 21st day, 22nd day, 24th day, 25th day. Ophthalmic Ultrasound B was obtained at the 2nd day, 3rd day, and 7th day after the operation. All 4 rabbits were sacrificed 1 month postoperatively, and the eyeballs were enucleated for histopathological examination and hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining and one of the experimental eyes was injected 100 μL of Japanese ink filtered by 0.2 μm filter membrane to vitreous cavity half an hour before death. Main Outcome Measures IOP and histopathological result. Results IOP measurements of all animals decreased 1 week after the operation, and the control rabbit eye increased gradually to the baseline at the 18th day postoperatively. IOP measurements of 2 experimental eyes in the experimental group during the observation period of the past month were (9.77±1.30) mmHg and (10.08±0.76) mmHg respectively, and were always lower than the pre-operative intraocular pressure (16.00 mmHg and 14.00 mmHg) and the contralateral untreated eyes (14.85±1.46) mmHg and (15.65±1.93) mmHg. The HE staining showed an accumulation of Japanese ink in para-vascular spaces around blood vessel walls in the one experimental eye. Conclusion Experimental study in rabbit preliminarily shows it is possible to drainage aqueous humor through a hole of lamina cribrosa to subarachnoid space. (Ophthalmol CHN, 2023, 32: 462-468)

Key words: lamina cribrosa, glaucoma, New Zealand rabbit