Implant aids long-term IOP reduction in study of nonpenetrating glaucoma surgery

In a study comparing nonpenetrating glaucoma surgery with and without an absorbable implant, the effect of the surgery was longer-lived in patients receiving the implant. At 2 years’ follow-up, mean intraocular pressure was lower and the percentage IOP decrease was greater in patients who received the hydrophilic implant than in those who did not, the study found.

Elie Dahan, MD, MMedOphth, and Andre Mermoud, MD, and colleagues in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Lausanne, Switzerland, prospectively studied a nonpenetrating glaucoma surgery technique in 48 eyes of 32 patients between the ages of 18 and 86 with primary open-angle glaucoma. In 25 eyes, the IOLTech T-Flux hydrophilic implant was implanted, and in 23 eyes the surgery was performed without the implant.

During the first 18 months of follow-up, the authors reported, results in both groups were similar. Mean IOP remained less than 14 mm Hg in both groups.

After 2 years, however, the IOP started to rise in the nonimplant group while remaining stable in the implant group. By 30 months, the mean IOP was 12.4 mm Hg in the implant group and 16.1 mm Hg in the nonimplant group. Mean percentage of IOP decrease from preoperative was 62% in the implant group and 34% in the nonimplant group. These differences were statistically significant, the authors said.

The study is published in the November/December issue of Ophthalmic Surgery, Lasers & Imaging.