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Ab interno micro-stent reduces IOP, glaucoma medication use
SAN FRANCISCO — A micro-stent was beneficial in reducing IOP and medication use alone and in combination with phacoemulsification, according to a study presented here.
Manfred R. Tetz, MD, discussed data on the Hydrus micro-stent (Ivantis) at the American Glaucoma Society annual meeting.
“This implant is very easy to use,” Tetz said. “It is an ab interno procedure and reduces IOP significantly, and it does it with and without simultaneous phacoemulsification, so it is also used as a standalone procedure. In this case, we have the majority of patients medication-free. And we did not see any major complications in the follow-up, which is still carrying on.”
Manfred R. Tetz
The clinical study included 40 eyes that underwent Hydrus implantation only and 29 eyes that underwent Hydrus implantation combined with phacoemulsification. Primary endpoints at 1 year were IOP reduction and use of IOP-lowering medications.
Both groups were similar in terms of preoperative IOP, age and gender.
Preoperative IOP was 25.5 mm Hg in the combination group and 21.6 mm Hg in the Hydrus alone group. Postoperative IOP was 16.8 mm Hg in the combination group and 17.7 mm Hg in the Hydrus alone group.
IOP medication use was reduced from 1.4 to 0.5 in the Hydrus alone group, Tetz said.
Complications included minor hyphema and small synechiae; one patient had visual loss because of cataract.
Ongoing studies are comparing Hydrus to phacoemulsification only and to one or two iStents (Glaukos).
“We are very anxious to look at results in these patients with mild to moderate glaucoma and early surgery,” Tetz said.
Disclosure: Tetz and fellow authors are investigators for Ivantis.