This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Study finds low hypotony rate from overfiltration in eyes with glaucoma drainage devices
J Glaucoma. 2009;18(8):638-641.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Less than 2% of patients who had a glaucoma drainage device implanted developed hypotony that could not be medically managed, demonstrating a low rate of the complication from overfiltration, a study found.
"Hypotony owing to overfiltration is an uncommon [glaucoma drainage device]-surgery complication," the authors said. "When treating hypotony owing to [glaucoma drainage device] overfiltration, a nonabsorbable suture may be more effective than occlusion with an absorbable suture. ... Appreciating how to manage these patients can lead to an improvement in patient outcomes."
The retrospective case series looked at 1,292 eyes that had either a Baerveldt implant (488 eyes) or an Ahmed implant (804 eyes). The study assessed demographic characteristics, glaucoma drainage device type, surgical revision type and outcomes by chart review from a 4-year period.
A total of 21 eyes developed hypotony from overfiltration and needed surgical revision, the study found. Of those, 15 eyes had a Baerveldt implant (3.1%) and six had an Ahmed implant (0.7%).
In addition, the researchers found that for both primary and secondary revisions, suture ligation using Prolene sutures had a better success rate of fewer required additional surgeries than polyglactin suture ligation.