Schlemm’s Canal under the Scanning Electron Microscope

Abstract

With the aid of the scanning electron microscope using 4 eyes of Rhesus monkeys, 8 post mortemeyes and 1 freshly enucleated tumourous eye, the inner and outer wall of Schlemm’s canal were examined. At the inner wall of all eyes openings of up to a size of 2 μ were found which might correspond to the ‘pores’ described by Flocks in 1956. Only the tumourous eye showed a Sondermann’s channel with a size of 12 μ.At the outer wall one has to differentiate between two types of collector channels, the openings of which are typical for the formation of septa and the function of which is explained as stabilization of Schlemm’s canal during increases of pressure.