Every glaucoma drug sorts by whether it reduces aqueous PRODUCTION or increases OUTFLOW, and the alpha agonists sit on both sides, which is where most errors come from. Each class then carries one fact that decides whether a given patient can have it — asthma for the non-selective beta blockers, age under two for the alpha agonists, visual blurring for the cholinergics. Anesthetics, cycloplegics and fluorescein close the lecture. What this lecture does not test. Dosing — “not for memorization sake… you can always look up the dosing if you know which drug you actually want to use in the first place” — and formulations, and the specific combination products (“the specific combinations, I don’t care that you memorize, BUT… what would be a helpful second line agent to add on?” — products out, reasoning in). Two things are narrower than they sound. “Don’t worry so much about indications for use… a lot of them have a lot of crossover” is about the table of overlapping antibiotic indications, not about what an agent is for. And “don’t memorize which ones cause eye irritation or hypersensitivity… any of these can do that” is about the generic irritation, not about the effects that name one drug — ciprofloxacin’s white precipitate, the bitter taste of the carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, the iris color change of the prostaglandins. Indications and agent-specific adverse effects are asked here.
Answers reveal only after you choose. Your score and a breakdown by objective appear at the end, with a review of everything you missed.