Early Experience with the Paul Glaucoma Implant in Childhood Glaucoma: A Case Series.

PURPOSE: The Paul glaucoma implant (PGI, Advanced Ophthalmic Innovations, Singapore, Republic of Singapore) is a recently developed novel non-valved glaucoma drainage device (GDD) designed to effectively reduce the intraocular pressure (IOP) in glaucoma patients with a theoretically reduced risk of postoperative complications such as hypotony, endothelial cell loss, strabismus, and diplopia. Limited literature has evaluated its use in adult glaucoma; however, its use in pediatric glaucoma has not been reported to date. We present our early experience with PGI in refractory childhood glaucoma.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

This study was retrospective single-surgeon case series in a single tertiary center.

RESULTS

Three eyes of 3 patients with childhood glaucoma were enrolled in the study. During nine months of follow-up, postoperative IOP and number of glaucoma medications were significantly lower than preoperative values in all the enrolled patients. None of the patients developed postoperative complications including postoperative hypotony, choroidal detachment, endophthalmitis, or corneal decompensation.

CONCLUSION

PGI is an efficient and relatively safe surgical treatment option in patients with refractory childhood glaucoma. Further studies with larger number of participants and longer follow-up period are required to confirm our encouraging results.