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Letters to the Editor: High-resistance Wind Instruments and IOP

 
 

Copyright 2024, Mark Alan Wade

Primary Author: Markoff, J.
Journal Title: Ophthalmology
Date Published: Apr-01
Language: English
Category: Vision Problems
Key Words: wind instrument performance resistance
Full Citation: Markoff, Joseph I. Letters to the Editor: High-resistance Wind Instruments and IOP. Ophthalmology 108, no. 4 (April 2001): 635.
Full Abstract: The findings of J. S. Schuman, et al. correlating trumpet playing and raised intraocular pressure via the Valsalva maneuver are not founded on normal playing conditions for trumpet and are quite possibly false. Because the Schuman study took place with the trumpeter laying on his back with an ultrasound probe touching the right eye and the left with a pneumotonometer and possible retrograde saliva draining from the lead pipe into the oral cavity, the study was compromised. These non-physiologic conditions themselves could have produced the Valsalva maneuver and raise the IOP. Other factors were not considered in the Shuman study, including mouthpiece size, mass, bore diameter or bell flare- all of which can affect the resistance of the horn and alter the findings of IOP.