Postoperative complications after glaucoma surgery for primary angle-closure glaucoma vs primary open-angle glaucoma.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the incidence of postoperative complications arising in the first year after trabeculectomy and combined phacotrabeculectomy in eyes with primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG) vs those with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG).

METHODS

This was a retrospective study of all glaucoma operations done at a Singapore hospital from January 9, 2001, to December 30, 2004. The types of glaucoma surgery included trabeculectomy and phacotrabeculectomy, all with mitomycin C or fluorouracil. The incidences of postoperative complications and reoperations were analyzed. For those who underwent bilateral or repeated operations, only the first operated eye of each subject was included.

RESULTS

A total of 446 subjects with PACG (112 who underwent trabeculectomy and 334 who underwent phacotrabeculectomy) and 816 subjects with POAG (208 who underwent trabeculectomy and 608 who underwent phacotrabeculectomy) were analyzed. Postoperative complications occurred in 65 of 1262 eyes (5.2%) overall, with 27 eyes (8.4%) in the trabeculectomy group (PACG: 8.0%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 4.3%-14.6%; POAG: 8.7%; 95% CI, 5.5%-13.3%; P > .99) and 38 eyes (4.0%) in the phacotrabeculectomy group (PACG: 5.1%; 95% CI, 3.2%-8.0%; POAG: 3.5%; 95% CI, 2.3%-5.2%; P = .31). The rate of complications was significantly higher in the trabeculectomy group than the phacotrabeculectomy group overall (P = .003), but there was no significant difference between the POAG and PACG groups overall (POAG: 4.8%; 95% CI, 3.5%-6.5%; PACG: 5.8%; 95% CI, 4.0%-8.4%; P = .53). The commonest complication found was hypotony with overfiltration (23 cases [1.8%]), followed by bleb leak (11 cases [0.9%]). There was no significant difference in incidence of reoperations between POAG (2.7%; 95% CI, 1.8%-4.1%) and PACG (4.0%; 95% CI, 2.6%-6.3%) (P = .27).

CONCLUSION

The incidences of postoperative complications and reoperations in the first year after glaucoma surgery were similar for PACG and POAG.