One-year results: Hydrus plus cataract surgery deemed better than cataract surgery alone

Issue: August 25, 2013

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — When combined with cataract surgery, a micro-stent that overcomes outflow resistance and leaves trabecular flow regulation intact lowered IOP better than cataract surgery alone in patients with age-related cataract and glaucoma, a study’s principal investigator reported here.

“Stents may overcome trabecular resistance, and they are better than cataract [surgery] alone,” Norbert Pfeiffer, MD, PhD, said at the World Glaucoma Congress, reporting 1-year results of the Hydrus II study.

Norbert Pfeiffer

The prospective, controlled, randomized, multicenter study included 100 patients assigned on a 1:1 basis to undergo either cataract surgery alone (the control group) or cataract surgery along with the Hydrus micro-stent (Ivantis). All patients were on at least one medication and had washed-out IOP of 22 mm Hg to 36 mm Hg at 12 months.

”The mean pressures were not so different,” in that IOP was lowered similarly in both groups at 12 months, Pfeiffer said. However, the percentage of patients needing re-medication at 12 months was considerably lower in the combined group, with 50% of the patients in the control group needing re-medication at 12 months and 25% of patients in the combined group needing re-medication, according to Pfeiffer.

Among patients who achieved a 20% IOP decrease and were not on any medications, responder rate was 75% for the combined group and 50% for the control group; for patients with IOP less than 21 mm Hg who were not on any medications, responder rates were 73% for the combined group and 48% for the control group, Pfeiffer said.

Disclosure: Pfeiffer is a consultant for or has received research grants from Alcon, Allergan, Busch + Lomb, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Carl Zeiss Meditec, Chibret, Glaukos, Heidelberg Engineering, Ivantis, Merck, Sharp & Dohme, Nidek, Novartis, Pfizer, Santen, Sensimed and Topcon.