CLASS yields promising long-term results in glaucoma patients

Issue: October 10, 2015

BARCELONA — Five-year results of CO₂ laser-assisted sclerectomy surgery showed lower rates of IOP and complications in open-angle glaucoma patients, according to a speaker here.

“CLASS is simple to perform and has a short learning curve. This is very important. The long-term results proved high in safety and significant reduction in the number of medications. Long-term efficacy shows significant IOP reduction,” Noa Geffen, MD, said at the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons meeting.

Noa Geffen

The prospective single-arm multicenter study included 111 patients with either primary open-angle glaucoma or pseudoexfoliation glaucoma who underwent CO₂ laser-assisted sclerectomy surgery (CLASS). The surgery was performed with the IOPtimate system (IOPtima).

Mean IOP was reduced from 25.8 mm Hg preoperatively to 13.5 mm Hg, 14.2 mm Hg and 14.3 mm Hg at 1 year, 3 years and 5 years postoperatively, respectively. Mean number of medications was reduced from 2.41 preoperatively to 0.5, 0.7 and 0.8 at 1 year, 3 years and 5 years postoperatively, respectively.

“On the first postoperative day, there was a significant reduction in pressure, and then the pressure plateaued and kept over the 5 years,” Geffen said.

The success rate at 1 year, 3 years and 5 years was 78.5%, 84.8% and 86.4%, respectively.

Patients who underwent the CLASS procedure had a complication rate of 39.8% at 5 years compared with 63% in patients who underwent trabeculectomy in the Tube Versus Trabeculectomy Study. – by Nhu Te

Disclosure: Geffen reports studies were supported in part by grants from IOPtima.

Reference:

Gedde SJ, et al. Am J Ophthalmol. 2012;doi:10.1016/j.ajo.2011.10.026.

European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons Meeting

CLASS yields promising long-term results in glaucoma patients