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Few tube erosions occur after Ahmed valve implantation without patch graft
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Among complications that occur after implantation of Ahmed valves without patch graft, tube exposure is rare, a speaker here said.
In 840 randomly selected patients who received such an implant, only four had tube exposure in long-term follow-up.
“We get all kinds of complications, but the amount of tube exposure is quite low,” Oscar Albis-Donado, MD, said at the World Glaucoma Congress.
Oscar Albis-Donado
Albis-Donado and colleagues retrospectively reviewed the records of patients randomly culled from a group of approximately 8,700 Ahmed valve recipients between 1993 and 2009. A total of 912 Ahmed valve implants without tube-covering patch and their associated 8,152 visits were analyzed for IOP control, complications and rate of failure.
Neovascular glaucoma was the most common type of glaucoma treated with the Ahmed shunt, accounting for 39.8% of cases; open-angle glaucoma followed, accounting for 14.8% of cases.
The least frequent complication was glaucoma-related loss of light perception, which occurred in 3.8% of cases
Disclosure: Albis-Donado has received honoraria or travel expenses from Allergan, Alcon, Merck Sharp and Dohme and Laboratorios Sophia.