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Micropulse transscleral cyclophotocoagulation lowers IOP in severe disease

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WASHINGTON — Micropulse transscleral cyclophotocoagulation lowered IOP in patients with severe stage glaucoma, according to a speaker here.

Patients experienced a mean 23.1% IOP reduction at 1 year postop, while the number of pressure reducing medications the patients used went unchanged, Carisa Elaine Bohnak, said at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery annual meeting. Bohnak coauthored the presentation with John P. Aey, MD.

“The use of micropulse transscleral cyclophotocoagulation (MP-TSCPC) may not only be effective in lowering the average IOP, but maintaining this for up to 1-year follow up. Overall the procedure was well tolerated, with most patients having symptoms that were new resolved by 1 month,” she said.

Compared with traditional transscleral cyclophotocoagulation that uses continuous diode laser to ablate the ciliary body, MP-TSCPC is a transscleral diode laser designed to only destroy the pigmented epithelium of the ciliary body, she said.

The retrospective chart review included 56 patients with primarily advanced stage glaucoma. Researchers used MP-TSCPC in 54 eyes of the patients. Preoperative and postoperative IOP, the number of glaucoma medications and best corrected visual acuity were recorded for each patient up to 1 year, she said.

“Although 14% of patients had a one-line decrease of vision at 6 months, many of these patients had competing ocular comorbidities,” she said. – by Robert Linnehan

Reference: Bohnak CE. Micropulse transscleral cyclophotocoagulation in the treatment of patients with primarily severe stage glaucoma. Presented at: American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery annual meeting; April 13-17, 2018; Washington.

Disclosure: Bohnak reports no relevant financial disclosures.