Abstract:Glaucoma is the first leading cause of irreversible blindness and the second leading cause of blindness worldwide. Numerous studies have shown that elevated intraocular pressure(IOP)is one of the major risk factors for the development and progression of glaucomatous optic nerve damage. However, there have been 50% of primary open-angle glaucoma(POAG)patients with typical glaucomatous optic neuropathy in whom the IOP measurements have always been in the normal range, and some patients develop typical glaucomatous optic neuropathy with the well controlled IOP. These phenomena cannot be explained by the theory of high intraocular pressure. The pathogenesis of glaucomatous optic nerve damage in these patients with normal IOP needs to be further discussed. Numerous studies at home and abroad have shown that: 1. the surrounding anatomy of the optic nerve including the IOP, the anatomy and biomechanics of the lamina cribrosa and retrobulbar orbital cerebrospinal fluid pressure may be of importance for the pathogenesis of the POAG; 2. patients with normal tension glaucoma had significantly lower cerebrospinal fluid pressure and a higher trans-lamina cribrosa pressure difference compared with normal subjects; 3. patients with ocular hypertension had significantly higher cerebrospinal fluid pressure, however, there is no difference in trans-lamina cribrosa pressure compared with normal subjects. Based on the above research, now we make a review about the research advance of the relation between intracranial pressure and glaucoma optic nerve damage and the available measurements about noninvasive intracranial pressure in clinical in this paper.