Trabeculectomy: complications and success in IOP control.

A retrospective study of the complications of trabeculectomy performed in the Department of Ophthalmology, Medical Faculty, Addis Ababa University between 1987-1990 is presented. Trabeculectomy was performed in 470 eyes of 354 patients during the four years period. The types of glaucomas were primary open angle glaucoma in 215 eyes (46%), primary angle closure glaucoma in 105 eyes (22%), secondary glaucoma in 117 eyes (25%) and congenital glaucoma in 33 eyes (7%). The post operative complications were shallow anterior chamber (29%), cataract (24%), hyphema (24%), uveitis (17%), choroidal detachment (4%), and conjunctival defect (3%). The post operative results show that intraocular pressure of 355 eyes (76%) were controlled with trabeculectomy alone, 17 eyes (4%) were controlled with trabeculectomy and additional medical treatment and in 98 eyes (21%), trabeculectomy with medical treatment failed to control the intraocular pressure. The overall success rate in controlling IOP was 79% and this result is similar to and comparable with results in the literature. The large exclusion (277 patients) is largely due to the fact that records could not be found.