Recent progress of continuous intraocular pressure monitoring

Glaucoma, a chronic optic neuropathy, is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the world. Elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) has been considered to be the major contributor to glaucoma for a long time and is currently proved to be the only modifiable risk factor for the progression of optic neuropathy. IOP fluctuates throughout the day with a circadian rhythm change and is affected by body gesture changes. Moreover, the IOP spike usually occurs at night or in the early morning. Therefore, the current clinical practice of single and static measurements of IOP during office hours is not conducive to the early diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma. This review focuses on current advances in implantable and noninvasive IOP sensors for obtaining 24-hour continuous IOP profiles. The content summarizes and classifies IOP sensors based on their working principles and provides representative examples of the sensors for IOP monitoring. Finally, the review further analyzes the challenges of current IOP sensors for clinical practice and puts forward the prospect of IOP sensors in the future.